Early Charlottesville recollections of James Alexander, 1828-1874. Reprinted from the Jeffersonian republican |
 | Recollections of James Alexander |
 | Early Charlottesville |  |
Recollections of James Alexander
As Printed in The Jeffersonian Republican
charlottesville, virginia
December 17, 1873
Forty-Five Years Ago.—The Local of the Jeffersonian
is disposed to tell some yarns of former times in
this Virginia town, named after her majesty, Queen
Charlotte, who bore George the Third, King of Great
Britain, thirteen children.
The Square.—The land on which the courthouse is
erected, and the vacant plat in front of it was the gift[1]
Rives, who had the town laid off in lots in 1761-'62, and
which was incorporated by the House of Burgesses,
November, 1762. In 1828, when we first saw the Square,
there was on the west side of it a row of locust trees, in
front of the stores [McKee block], which had been set
out fifteen or twenty years previously, only one of which
is now standing, in front of Dr. McKee's residence.
These trees had been planted by a man by the name
of Shadrach Battles, who was half Indian, half mulatto;
his pay for the work was to be a quart of whisky
for every tree that lived. He watched them carefully
and watered them to aid in their growth, and when any
of them gave evidence of life by putting forth leaves
he would clap his hands and shout, "Another quart
saved." The persons who did business on that side paid
the contractor as per agreement. All the stores in town
sold ardent spirits, and kept open doors on Sunday
mornings till 10 o'clock, except John Cochran, to traffic
and trade with the slaves, who came to town with
written permits from their masters to dispose of their
garden truck, &c. When the late Benjamin Ficklin,
a magistrate, settled in town, he was the means of breaking
required that the slaves should be allowed to buy and
sell on Sunday, because they had no other time to do
it in, he said it was against the laws of the State to labor
or do business on the Sabbath, and if masters wished
their servants to sell what little products they had, they
should give them time enough to do so on Saturday
afternoon, and not on the Sabbath. Mr. Ficklin enforced
the laws and fined those who violated them; on
one occasion, when his manager drove his team to town
on Sunday, he went before another magistrate and had
a fine entered against himself, and he made a lawyer
pay a fine of $5 on admitting that he wrote business
letters on Sunday.
Twyman Wayt did business on the south-west corner,
now the tobacco factory[2]
of Captain C. C. Wertenbaker.
Mr. Wayt many years afterwards was Post
Master, and lived to be upwards of 80 years of age. No
man was more highly respected than he for purity, fairdealing
and integrity.
Next door to him lived and carried on business, Andrew
who resides in the same house. Both the above
houses are brick.
The next house is wood,[3]
with a porch and veranda
above it, and for many years previously had been kept
as a hotel, and was built by Thos. Wells, the father of
Fountain Wells, and by way of distinction was called
the "Yellow House." It was then occupied, one room
of it, next to Mr. McKee, by George Toole, the tailor,
an Irishman with a warm heart, generous feelings, an
enthusiastic Democrat in politics, and one of the best
of citizens.
The next store was occupied by Bramham & Bibb,
dry goods merchants and grocers. Colonel Nimrod
Bramham, one of the partners, had been a member of
the Virginia Legislature, was a popular man, and one
of Virginia's hospitable noblemen. His residence was
on the farm now owned by Rev. James Fife, near the
University of Virginia. He was a christian by word
and deed, a Baptist, and baptized by the celebrated
John Leland,[4]
the zealous advocate of the election of
Thomas Jefferson as President in 1800. Colonel B.
Church in this place and its elder deacon. Mr. Wm. A.
Bibb, the other partner, resided in the house over the
store and carried on business there for many years. He
was the first cashier of the Farmers' Bank in this place,
to the time of his death, September, 1865, and was as
honest and worthy a man as ever resided in our town.
His wife was Sarah Bramham, the eldest daughter of
his partner.
The next store and house, brick,[5]
were occupied by
John Simpson, and afterwards by Christopher Hornsey
and John W. Goss, dry goods merchants; the latter
gentleman is now the clerk of the county court; in later
years it was occupied by the Farmers' Bank. Mr. Simpson
married Lucy Bramham, a daughter of Col. Bramham.
He was a worthy and good man, was a deacon
in the Baptist Church.
The next house, a wooden building, was occupied by
Samuel Leitch, Sr., usually called Uncle Sam. He was
by birth an Irishman, kind, hospitable, sociable and a
good citizen. He was a zealous Mason, and in his latter
days became a member of the Presbyterian church. He
was the father of Dr. James A. Leitch, and grandfather
of J. S. Leitch, one of the proprietors of the Jeffersonian.
He had for clerk and business manager Andrew
Sample, one of the most genial and pleasant men
that it was ever our happiness to know. Every boy and
he loved them all, and ever greeted them with smiles and
cheerfulness.
Next to Mr. S. Leitch, was the house where the life[6]
and correspondence of Thomas Jefferson was printed;
there were four iron presses at work in the printing, on
the first floor, and the compositors room was above.
Ten thousand copies of four volumes each were completed
within a few months, and we aided in the work.
The late Ebenezer Watts was the bookbinder. The
Virginia Advocate, and successor to the Central Gazette,
was published on the ground-floor, or cellar, of
the same building. Dr. Frank Carr, a gentleman of
fine literary taste and classic erudition, was the editor
of the Advocate. The gentlemen associated with him as
proprietors were J. A. G. Davis, afterwards professor
of law in the University of Virginia, and Nicholas P.
Trist, Esq. who married a sister of Colonel Thomas
Randolph, and was United States Peace Commissioner
to Mexico, after General Scott had captured the city
of Mexico, when peace was made between the United
States and this country. The editors who succeeded
Dr. Carr, were, E. M. Reinhart, a native of Massachusetts,
who had established in Haverhill, in that state,
in 1824, the first paper to advocate the election of General
Jackson to the presidency. He married a daughter
of Dabney Minor, of this county, and afterwards removed
to Louisville, Kentucky, and was connected with
Jackson's term as President he gave Mr. Reinhart a
clerkship. Mr. Reinhart had often solicited an appointment
from the President, who assured him that he should
fill the first vacancy that occurred in the War Department,
but none occurring, Mr. R. told the President to
put in writing, directing the head of the Department
to give him an office if there was a vacant clerkship.
This had the desired effect, and Mr. Reinhart got the
office immediately upon presenting the letter, with the
well known signature of Andrew Jackson. Mr. Reinhart
sold the Advocate to W. M. Cary, J. W. C. Watson,
now living in Mississippi, and was a member of the
Confederate Senate during the late war, and E. Watson,
who served several years in the Virginia Legislature,
and in later years elected Judge of the Circuit
Court. Then Alexander Moseley succeeded as editor.
Mr. M. has been since then proprietor and editor of
the Richmond Whig. William Tompkins followed, then
Allen B. Magruder, then Lucian Minor, in 1840, when
the Advocate undertook to give one-half of the paper
to the Democratic side and the other to the Whig side,
but this not succeeding, Thomas Wood became editor;
after him, James C. Halsall and Wm. Shelton, became
editors and proprietors; both these gentlemen were
afterwards instructors of youths. John L. Cochran,
now Judge of the county court, and O. S. Allen became
proprietors. Mr. Cochran was the editor. The office
was sold to Green Peyton, now Proctor of the University,
and James C. Southall, since editor of the Richmond
Enquirer, who changed the paper's name to the
Review. The war breaking out, the Review ceased to
conveyed to Richmond.
In 1864, Marshall J. Hughes brought his office from
Knoxville, Tennessee, and established the Chronicle.
It was for awhile edited by Rev. J. C. Hiden, then hospital
chaplain in this place, and afterwards by J. C.
Southall, who purchased the office of Mr. Hughes after
the war ended, and continued to edit it till June, 1868.
While Mr. Southall was a member of the State Convention
the Chronicle was edited by Bennett Taylor,
who in conjunction with John H. Foster, purchased it.
Mr. Taylor in April, 1871, sold out his interest to his
partner, Mr. Foster, who became sole proprietor and
editor. The paper was published tri-weekly and weekly
after the war, and for a short time daily, but the daily
not proving successful, the paper was enlarged and in
February, 1873, was sold to the present proprietors,
Messrs. C. D. Fishburne, James D. Jones, Micajah
Woods, James B. Gilmer and C. R. C. Ackerley, Mr.
Fishburne assuming the editorial control of the paper.
There is no record of this gift. Though it is mentioned in an
article by Natalie Disbrow, "Thomas Walker of Albemarle County,"
published in Papers of the Albemarle County Historical Society,
Vol. I (1940-41), p. 14, examination of the three citations shows
there is no reference in them to a gift, and those most familiar with
the subject discredit the idea.
For the site of the town the county purchased one thousand
acres, stretching from Cochran's Pond on the north to Moore's
Creek, and from what is now E. Seventh Street to Preston Heights.
Dr. Walker was largely instrumental in this step, and was appointed
Trustee to handle the buying of land and laying off of lots.
The original town contained four tiers of lots upon the eastern edge
of the tract, extending east and west, and from Jefferson to South
Streets. Each tier comprised seven one-acre squares, and each
square was divided into two lots. The court house, as county property,
was located outside the town on the immediate northern edge,
and at first its lot was not bordered by streets, it being intended to
reproduce an English green, with houses facing directly upon it.
This proving impracticable, the county later laid off from its
grounds a street on each side of the building. It is believed still
to retain rights to this land to the further curb, but has never assumed
jurisdiction, not even of the side-walks adjoining its grounds.
The Jackson Park Tract, also, is controlled by the city.
Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia . . . [Charlottesville,
Va., 1901], p. 27; data from W. L. Maupin and Judge
Lemuel F. Smith.
This was the first of a row of houses which ran north and
south on what is now Jackson Park. They faced east towards the
court house on a lane with trees and hitching posts and were once
buildings of importance. They became known as the McKee block,
and the north end gradually declined into a forlorn rookery. (Here
"Colonel Crack," a demented but harmless Negro, whose passion
was uniforms, decorations and the unauthorized leading of all public
parades, long lived.) These buildings were razed to make way
for Mr. Paul G. McIntire's gift in 1921 of the Stonewall Jackson
statue. The Wayt house was for a while occupied by the academy
of Col. John Bowie Strange before the school's removal to Ridge
Street.
This building was brought from Milton, and possessed the
"sway" characteristic of these transplanted dwellings. It was later
called the Central Hotel. (Authority: W. L. Maupin.)
John Leland (1754-1838) was born in Grafton, Mass. He
was an active and eloquent minister, a writer of political and religious
pamphlets. He lived for about fifteen years as a young man
in Culpeper and Orange counties, Virginia. He calculated in his
old age that he had baptized 1524 persons. James B. Taylor, Virginia
Baptist Ministers . . . (2 vols., Richmond, Va., [etc.]
1837-59), Vol. II, pp. 30-41.
This house was built of 9-inch brick in Flemish bond, and its
construction was so sound that upon its demolition the contractor
found it impossible to "throw" the walls and they were taken down
brick by brick. A number of gold coins were found in the debris.
(Authority: W. L. Maupin.)
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers
of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
4 vols. Charlottesville, published by F. Carr and Co., 1829.
December 24, 1873
Forty-Five Years Ago.—On the north side of the
Public Square was situated the stone jail; at that time
no high walls, as at the present day, enclosed any part
of it. The jailor was William Watson, who carried on
the business of saddler and harness making in one of the
rooms on the lower floor. He owned and had for his
residence the house[7]
on Park Street,[8]
now the property
of Thomas Wood, Esq.
county, was the judge of the Superior Court, till
the new constitution of 1829-30 went into effect. Since
then[11] the judges have been Lucas P. Thompson, of
Augusta, Richard Field, of Culpeper, Egbert R. Watson,[12]
of this county, and the present incumbent, Henry
Shackelford, of Culpeper county.
The clerk of this and the County Court was Alexander
Garrett,[13]
who had for his deputy, many years, his
brother, Ira Garrett, who entered the Clerk's office as
far back as 1807 or 1808, and in 1830 was appointed
clerk of the County Court and after the adoption of the
revised constitution of the State, which went into effect
in 1852, and which gave the election to the people, was
elected clerk of both the Circuit and County Courts.
He held these offices till displaced by Gen. Canby,[14]
and
afterwards served as assistant to Dr. Points, the clerk.
Mr. Garrett lived till he was nearly eighty years of age,
and we believe, for the sixty odd years that he was in the
Clerk's office, never was absent more than once or twice
from any session of the Courts, during all that time; and
his office was never closed during office hours. Mr.
Garrett was not only attentive to business but accurate,
gentlemanly, polite and courteous.
The County Court, in 1828, and onwards, numbered
among its justices some of the most substantial and best
citizens in the county. We call to mind the following:
the present time in England, prosecuting his claims as
heir to the Jennings estate of several millions of pounds
sterling; Col. Samuel Carr[15] elected State Senator in
1835, Col. William Woods, James Jarman, Garrett
White, John Watson, father of Judge E. R. Watson,
Micajah Woods, John Rodes, Opie Norris, William D.
Meriwether, Col. John R. Jones, Dr. Frank Carr, Col.
Th. J. Randolph, Benjamin Ficklin, and Dr. Charles
Cocke, for several years State Senator.
The lawyers then practising at the bar were, Philip
P. Barbour,[16]
for many years, member of Congress,
Judge of the United States Court, dying at Washington
during the session of the Court in that city; James
Crawford, John H. Peyton,[17]
State Senator from Augusta
County; William C. Rives,[18]
member of the Virginia
Legislature, and in 1829 elected to the United
States House of Representatives, and in after years,
twice a member of the United States Senate, twice
days Representative in the Confederate House of Representatives
from the Albemarle Congressional District;
Gen. William F. Gordon, member of both Houses of
the Virginia Legislature, and also of the United States
House of Representatives. He first proposed the subtreasury
system, or management of its finances by the
separate instrumentalities of the Government, without
the aid of Banks. And when this policy was afterwards
urged by the Gov't the honor of having originated it was
universally accorded him; Cha's Downing, in later years
a member of Congress from Florida. He was a fluent
speaker and gifted writer. He wrote the account of the
visit of Gen. Lafayette to Mr. Jefferson, and his reception
by the people of this county, and the dinner given
to him at the University in 1824; Thos. W. Gilmer,[19]
elected in 1829, and for years afterwards, to the Virginia
House of Delegates, Governor of Virginia in 1840, and
elected to the United States House of Representatives
next year, then appointed by President Tyler, Secretary
of Navy, and lost his life on board of the Princeton, by
the bursting of the monster gun. Valentine W. Southall,
for many years Commonwealth's Attorney, member
of the Virginia Legislature, and of the Convention,
which passed the act of Secession from United States in
1861; Rice W. Wood, elected to the house of Delegates
by the whole community; Boucher Carr, Commonwealth's
attorney, he was a man so conscientious in the
discharge of his duty, that he refused to engage in the
prosecution of a person whom he believed not guilty, or
to defend one that he felt satisfied was guilty; Henry T.
Harris, Francis B. Dyer, John M. Martin, Wm. H.
Meriwether, J. A. G. Davis, afterwards Professor of
Law in the University of Virginia, and was shot by a
student in November, 1840, from the effects of which he
died. Alexander Rives, now United States District
Judge, was, we think, in 1829, the junior member of the
Albemarle bar; Maj. James Garland, member of the
Legislature for Nelson County, and of the U. S. House
of Representatives from this district, and at the present
time judge of the court in Lynchburg and is in the 82d
year of his age. Thomas J. Michie,[20] of Staunton, also
practised in the courts here for many years, and was
prosecuting attorney in the Superior Court.
In 1826 John Watson, Esq. was high sheriff, Nelson
Barksdale farmed the office, and with Col. J. J. Bowcock
and J. Frank Fry, were the deputy sheriffs for the
two years. In 1828 Wm. D. Meriwether was high sheriff,
the office, and were the deputy sheriffs for the term of
two years. The senior Magistrate, in those days, was
the high sheriff for the term of two years, who generally
farmed out the office for a money consideration, but
could, if he desired, perform the duties himself. In
1852, the people, for the first time, elected the sheriffs.
The first election that we witnessed was in April,
1829. W. C. Rives was elected to Congress, Th. W.
Gilmer and Rice W. Wood to the House of Delegates
and Gen. Wm. F. Gordon to the State Senate; Hugh
Nelson,[21]
who had recently returned as Minister from
Spain, was the opposing candidate.
On the eastern side of the square, where Mrs. Isabella
Leitch now resides,[22]
there stood an old dilapidated
almost the year 1828, been occupied as a tavern, and was
known as the Swan Tavern. The landlord of this house
was John Jouette, whose son in 1781, had been down the
country, and was returning, when he had a sight of General
Tarleton and his troop of cavalry, on their way to
this town to capture Mr. Jefferson, whom they believed
to be Governor of Virginia,[23] and the members of the
legislature, then in session in Charlottesville. Young
Jouette rode a fleet horse, and by taking a route shorter
than the main road, reached Charlottesville in time to
give warning of the approach of the enemy, thus enabling
Mr. Jefferson and family, and all the members of
the Legislature, except two or three, to make their escape,
troops. This Mr. Jouette, years afterward, emigrated
to the State of Kentucky, and was made a Judge
at Law.
In 1808, a man by the name of John (called Jack)
M'Coy, was barkeeper in this Swan tavern; he was murdered
and thrown into the well on the premises. The
landlord, who was absent on the night that the murder
occurred, was accused of being concerned in it, but he
was acquitted. The late Ira Garrett was a boarder in
the house at the time, and was a witness in the case when
it was investigated by the court. No clue as to who committed
the murder was ever afterwards obtained.
On the vacant lot adjoining the hotel there was a battery;
where men and boys played ball; quoits were
pitched and marbles played. It was not unusual to see
men of fifty and boys of ten or twelve playing together.
This was a general resort for recreation, especially
two or three hours before sunset. On a square
or two north of this, on Sunday evenings, young men
and boys sometimes resorted to exercise their limbs
in jumping.
This street received its name from the fact that it led to the
Park Mill, north of the town and owned by Dr. George Gilmer of
Pen Park. Later, it was Cochran's Mill, and Cochran's Pond was
a favorite skating place for two generations. The miller's old
stone house still stands.
Following the removal of the county seat from Scottsville to
Charlottesville, 1762, a courthouse of slight and temporary construction,
but with a portico, was erected, probably near the site of
the present Clerk's Office. In The Court House of Albemarle
County, by W. Sam Burnley, ([n. p.], 1939), pp. 6-7, we learn
that a paper, discovered in 1938 in a closet of the Clerk's Office,
proved to be the bond of William Cabell, dated Nov. 13, 1762,
with John Harvie his security in the sum of one thousand pounds,
for the building of this courthouse. It was to reproduce the
Henrico courthouse, with the exception of a certain floor laid in
eight-inch tile where its model used flagstone. The cost was to be
three hundred and seventy-five pounds, ten shillings. The courthouse
at Scottsville had been a copy of that of Goochland, and was
"thirty-six feet long and twenty feet wide, from outside to outside"
(Mary Rawlings, Ante-Bellum Albemarle [Charlottesville, Va.,
1935], p. 32), so we may assume that this new one was no smaller.
In 1803 the north or rear wing of the present building was erected.
Geo. Divers, Wm. D. Meriwether and Isaac Miller were appointed
to draw the plan, the cost not to exceed five thousand dollars. The
committee was also directed, when the new house was finished, to
remove the old one, with the rubbish incident to the work. This
north wing long served as the town's public building, and the
churches of the community used it in rotation. The Court Square
was first enclosed in 1792, Pillory, stocks and whipping post stood
here, and as late as 1857 the whipping post was restored.
In 1825 a commission, consisting of Joseph Coffman, John M.
Perry, John Winn, Alexander Garrett, Micajah Woods and Opie
Norris was directed to have two offices erected on the northeast
corner of the Square for the commonwealth's attorney and the
sheriff, and in 1855 an engine house was built on the west side of
the Square and two offices in line with it on the east side. A front,
much ornamented with towers and gables, was built in 1859, and
after the War between the States this was altered by George W.
Spooner into the present front with columns. See Woods, Albemarle
County, p. 83.
Judge Stuart was educated at the College of William and
Mary and fought in the Revolutionary army. During his entire
army service he carried with him the official seal of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society, of which he was vice-president. Years after his
death, this was found in a secret drawer of his desk. When the
Society was revived in 1849, his son transferred the seal to the
officers, but since the Civil War days it has been lost sight of.
Judge Stuart served in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate,
as a presidential elector, and as member of the Convention of
1788. Lyon G. Tyler, ed., Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography
(5 vols., New York, 1915), Vol. II, pp. 153-54.
In 1885—a decade after the original publication of these
Recollections—John M. White was appointed to this office, which
he filled with distinction until his death in 1913. Judge White
was born in Norfolk County, Va. As a boy he ran away from the
Virginia Military Institute to join Mosby's command, with which
he fought through the remainder of the war. In addition to his
legal work he was a successful business man, having been president
of the Peoples National Bank for nearly twenty years. Exofficio,
he was head of the Miller Manual School, to which he gave
much time, and he was also active in the affairs of the Episcopal
Church. Philip Alexander Bruce et al., History of Virginia, (6
vols., Chicago and New York, 1924), Vol. IV, p. 181.
Egbert R. Watson was the son of John Watson of "Forest
Hill," near Milton. He studied law under Judge Hay, President
Monroe's son-in-law, while serving as Mr. Monroe's secretary at Oak
Hill in Loudoun County. He was admitted to the Charlottesville
bar in 1830, represented the county in both Houses of the Virginia
legislature, and served as Judge of the Circuit Court following
the War between the States. He was an elder in the Presbyterian
Church.
John M. Carr, grandson of Major Thomas Carr, preceded
Alexander Garrett as Clerk of the Circuit Court. He served nine
years, resigning in 1818. Woods, Albemarle County, p. 79.
Gen. Edward R. S. Canby was Military Commander of "District
No. I," as Virginia was designated during the reconstruction
period. Mr. Garrett, however, was removed from office (for refusal
of the iron-clad test oath) under Gen. George Stoneman,
Canby's predecessor. Ibid., pp. 121-122.
Col. Samuel Carr of the Dunlora family was an officer of
cavalry in the War of 1812 and nephew of Jefferson. His brother
owned Carrsbrook. Col. Carr served in the State Senate for the
terms 1837-1839, succeeding Dr. Charles Cocke, who served
1831-35, and also 1840-1843.
Of Orange County. Served as Speaker of the House of
Representatives. While in Congress he opposed all appropriations
for public improvements, and all import duties. Died, 1841.
Tyler, Encyc. of Va. Biography, Vol. II, pp. 83-84.
John Howe Peyton was also for many years in the Virginia
Legislature. He was an active member of the Whig party and
opposed secession. A brilliant reputation at the bar.
Wm. Cabell Rives served three terms in Congress and was
three times Senator from Virginia. Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 91-92.
Thomas Walker Gilmer must have been a colorful individualist.
Upon his election as Governor he toured the State to examine
all public works, defraying all expenses from private funds. In
one year he resigned, following the failure of the legislature to
support him in a dispute with New York State. He was at once
elected to Congress. Died at age of forty-one. Ibid., Vol. II, p. 53.
This eminent jurist studied law in the office of his uncle,
Chapman Johnson. He was the father of five sons, four of whom
lost their lives in the Confederate army. His surviving son, Henry
Bowyer Michie, in his later years lived here and edited the Charlottesville
Chronicle. He was the father of Armistead Rust Michie
and the late Thomas J. Michie of the law publishing firm, The
Michie Company of Charlottesville, and of the late George R. B.
Michie of the Peoples National Bank. Descendants of the Staunton
lawyer to the fourth generation are among our citizens.
Born at Yorktown, 1768, son of Governor Nelson. Speaker
of the Virginia House of Delegates, Judge of the General Court,
in Congress, 1811-1823, Minister to Spain, 1823-1824. Made his
home at Belvoir, Albemarle County. Died, 1836. Ibid., Vol. II,
p. 121.
Still standing. Now the Red Land Club, corner of Park
Street and East Jefferson. Of the Jouetts, Woods' Albemarle
County, pp. 240-41, tells us: "Among the earliest entries on the
Court records in 1745, is a notice of the death of Matthew Jouett,
and the appointment of John Moore as his executor. It can
scarcely be doubted that John Jouett, who was for many years a
prominent citizen of Charlottesville, was a son of this Matthew.
In 1773 John purchased from John Moore one hundred acres adjoining
the town on the east and north, and at that time most
likely erected the Swan Tavern of famous memory. . . . In
1790 he laid out High Street, with the row of lots on either side.
. . . He kept the Swan until his death in 1802. . . . At
the time of his death, and for many years after, no public place of
burial in the town existed. According to the custom of that day,
he was most probably buried in the yard in the rear of his house,
and his remains lie somewhere in the square on which the old
Town Hall is situated. . . . The general tradition about
Charlottesville has always been, that it was John Jouett, Sr., who
performed the exploit of outstripping Tarleton. . . . As to the
grave of the elder Jouett, there is a cluster of fine old box in the
rear of the Matacia home, 610 East High Street (to the rear of
the Town Hall), which is believed to mark the site of the burial
plot, the grave, according to belief, being within ten feet of a
spot now marked by a cherry tree.
Jefferson was Governor at this time. The raid occurred
June 3-4, 1781; in the excitement which followed, criticism of Mr.
Jefferson arose, and on June 12 a resolution was introduced in the
House of Delegates that "an inquiry be made into the conduct of
the Executive of this State for the last twelve months". It was
made, and the Governor was unanimously exonerated of all blame,
the chief mover, George Nicholas, becoming from this time one of
his close friends and supporters. Mr. Jefferson, however, refused
to stand for re-election. Lyon G. Tyler et al., History of Virginia
(6 vols., Chicago and New York, 1924), Vol. II, pp. 212-13.
December 31, 1873
It would be highly interesting, entertaining and instructive,
if some of our older citizens, natives of the
place, were to write for publication their recollections of
what they had seen, or what they had learned from their
parents and predecessors, respecting persons, places
and events—traditions from the earlier settlements
down to the present period. We have tried and urged
several persons, well versed on these subjects, to enter
Society in the State of Wisconsin, once a part of
Virginia, through its secretary, Lyman C. Draper, Esq.,
has been, and is now, engaged in collecting facts and incidents
in the lives of men who lived here over one hundred
years ago down to a third of a century since. If
Wisconsin feels so great an interest in the men of past
days, who lived among us, ought not we, who tread the
soil these worthies cultivated, foster their memories, and
leave to those who come after us, a record of their deeds,
virtues and toils?
In the last two numbers of the Jeffersonian, we
stated some of our recollections forty-five years ago, and
propose to give others; but what we are able to give will
only be a drop in the bucket to the wells from which
others might draw for the public good.
In our last number we spoke of the lawyers who practised
in the courts of this county in 1828. We omitted
the name of James W. Saunders who, in later years, and
until his death, was clerk of the District Court of Appeals.
Jno. B. Spiece was also a practising lawyer in
1828, and he is the only survivor of all the lawyers belonging
to the Albemarle Bar of that day.
The old Swan Tavern, that we spoke of, in its latter
days was called the old War Office, and for a time was
used for Thespian entertainments; Judge E. R. Watson,
we believe, was a member of that Thespian Club. In the
summer of 1832, the old Swan tumbled down, or was
pulled down. At the time of its fall, there was a ball at
the Eagle Hotel; the noise of the crash startled the
belles and beaux, and caused them to think it the rumbling
of an earthquake—it was only the exit of the old
Swan, singing its dying notes.
On the east side of the Public Square, stands the brick
building known as No. Nothing;[24]
in it the late Samuel
R. Jones, carried on mercantile business. Mr. L. was
by birth an Irishman, and came to Charlottesville about
the year 1819, and became clerk to his brother, James
Leitch, a merchant who did quite a large business in the
store-house next to No. Nothing, and accumulated a
large estate. Young Mr. Leitch was sociable, friendly,
hospitable and enthusiastic in whatever he engaged in.
In after years he built, and carried on business in, the
house which stands where the Swan did. He served a
number of years as alderman in Charlottesville, and died
four years since, aged 79.
Col. John R. Jones occupied the southern half of No.
Nothing; he had previously been a co-partner and associated
in business with Col. Bramham; he was, we
think, also interested in a mercantile firm at Louisa
Court House. He did quite an extensive business here,
and acted as the financial agent of several of the most
substantial planters and farmers of the county. About
that time he erected the fine mansion on Jefferson st.,
now owned and occupied by John H. Bibb, Esq.[25]
When
its President. Col. Jones reared a large family of
ten children, and all lived to be men and women; one of
his sons, John M. Jones, received his education at the
United States Military Academy at West Point, and
rose to be a General in the Confederate Army; he lost
his life while rallying his troops at the great battle of
Chancellorsville, and was interred in the cemetery here
in 1864.
Col. Jones was a hospitable man, and entertained
hosts of friends and relations, at his sumptuous board.
For years before his death he was a member of the Baptist
church and died in its communion.
In front of No. Nothing, on court-day, could often be
witnessed a scene worthy of beholding. Three of Virginia's
patriotic and noble sons, Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison and James Monroe, had frequently, in
former years been seen standing together conversing.
All three of these worthies had filled the highest post of
honor within the gift of the free people of the Union.
Each honored, respected and confided in the other. It
may not be improper to state a fact here that is not generally
known. When Mr. Madison was a candidate for
the Presidency, the Federalists had used the name of his
personal friend, James Monroe, against him, which, for
a time, caused a coolness on the part of the Republicans
towards the latter. Mr. Jefferson, who knew Mr.
Monroe well, and placed a high estimate of his worth
and statesmanship, was exceedingly anxious to have him
again restored in the affections of the then dominant
party. For this purpose, on election day, in April,
1810, he came to town, and insisted upon Mr. Monroe's
this county. He succeeded in inducing some of those
who had announced themselves candidates to withdraw;
Mr. Monroe then went upon the hustings and was
elected.
At that time the Court House was the only voting
place in the county, and freeholders alone were entitled
to vote. The democrats in the legislature knowing that
Mr. Monroe had the confidence of Mr. Jefferson, and
came endorsed by the great county of Albemarle,
elected him Governor of the State. The Governor was
then elected annually by the legislature but could be
elected for three years in succession. In 1812 Mr. Madison
appointed Mr. Monroe his Secretary of State, and
afterwards Secretary of War. The taking of an office
with a smaller salary, in order to aid the government in
those trying times of war, and his efficiency in the discharge
of his duties, rendered Mr. Monroe very popular
with the people. In 1816 he was elected President of
the United States to succeed his friend and neighbor,
Mr. Madison. John Adams, the second President of
the United States, voted for Mr. Monroe in the electoral
college of Massachusetts.
The brick building next to No. Nothing was [adjoined
by?] a small wooden building where the Charlottesville
Library[26]
was kept, which, for many years was
a source of great benefit to the citizens. Mr. Jefferson
eminent persons, enabled him to procure valuable works
for it. Rev. Andrew Eliot, an eminent congregational
minister in Boston, Massachusetts, contributed works to
this library. What remains of this old library, we think
is in the possession of the Young Men's Christian Association
of Charlottesville.
The late Andrew Leitch was a merchant, and did
business in the brick building[27]
next to the old library
building, now the office of Wm. T. Early, Register in
bankruptcy.
Next to this [library] building stood two wooden
tenements; the first was occupied by Lewis Leschot,[28]
a
watchmaker and jeweler, from Switzerland, who had settled
here by the advice of Mr. Jefferson and was quite
extensively patronized by the people far and wide.
business; she had a fine taste and pleased the ladies in
her selections. In after years she was a partner of the
firm of B. C. Flannagan & Company in the large Warehouse
on Main street, next to I. Leterman, in which
for many years an extensive dry goods business was conducted,
until Mr. B. C. Flannagan entered into the business
of banking.
Mr. Richard Matthews, was the successor to Mr.
Lewis Leschot, and till his decease, conducted the business
of a watchmaker and jeweler; he had watches manufactured
in Geneva for his sales here.
In the next building to Mr. Leschot, where the law
office of Judge W. J. Robertson[29]
now is, stood a plain,
one and a half story wooden tenement[30]
and in it lived,
![illustration](https://iiif.lib.virginia.edu/iiif/uva-lib:178556/full/!1600,1600/0/default.jpg")
He came to Charlottesville in 1811, and carried
on the business of saddle maker in the house now
occupied by Mr. Wm. T. Early as a law office. He is
said to have been a very sociable, genteel and agreeable
man, fond of ladies company, and attended all the balls
given in the place, ladies of rank, fashion and of the best
of families becoming partners in the dance with him.
On one occasion while at a ball some lady pinned the
skirts of his coat up, and in the next set he cut a somewhat
ridiculous figure, that caused a titter among the assembled
party. This so mortified his feelings, that he
never afterwards went to a party or ball. How long he
conducted his saddle making business we do not know;
he engaged in the purchase and sale of liquors and the
Yeargain whiskey had a reputation that brought him
extensive custom. At first his doors, like other stores,
were open, and he stood behind his counter to wait on his
customers but a party of young gentlemen, who had
been to a wine party, entered his store to get drinks and
one of them jumped over the counter and aided the old
man to make change. From that date he closed his store
doors, and put a ball and chain to the upper half of it,
and when any person wanted anything he would open
his door only a few inches. He left his house once a year
to go to the Court House to obtain his license, and to
make a few purchases of necessary articles of food. He
would, occasionally, admit a few personal friends into
his home, but he was a recluse for many years, and to the
end of his life. He wore short buckskin breeches, drab
colored cloth swallow-tail coat, and a knit cap on his
head. On a few occasions we have seen him stand with
crowd drawn together by the novelty of the sight.
It was known that he hoarded and buried his money.
He never received anything but silver coin. He died
suddenly, some 35 years since.—It is believed that in a
fit of apoplexy he fell into the fireplace, where he was
found dead with a slight bruise on his forehead. In his
cellar under his fire wood, was found his buried treasure,
amounting to six thousand dollars, which we saw placed
in tubs in the public room at the Eagle hotel. Many
persons believed that he had secreted a much larger
amount of money than was found in his cellar. A large
excavation was seen in the stalls of the adjoining stable,
from which it was said, at the time, some of Yeargain's
treasures had been buried, and taken away at the time
of his death. A plaster bust was taken of Mr. Yeargain
after his death, and the late John Toole, artist, painted a
striking likeness of him, which is now in the possession
of Col. Th: J. Randolph. Some years ere his death, a
nephew of his visited him; and the old man boarded
him at the Eagle hotel, and at the end of a week told him
he must stay no longer. Mr. Yeargain had a sister living
in Elizabeth city, and other relatives who inherited
his property.
Still standing, 240-242 Court Square. This lot was bought,
June 15, 1820, by Opie Norris and John C. Ragland, from Edmund
Anderson of Richmond, Albemarle County Deed Book 22, p. 334.
There were at that time no improvements thereon, and a memorandum
states that the ground between it and the Swan Tavern was to
remain a public street or road, and not to be stopped up without the
consent of both parties. In 1823, Dr. Ragland having died, Mr.
Norris purchased his rights. It is supposed that the present building
was then standing. Strangely enough, its northern and southern
halves have continued to be separately owned. The origin of
its name seems to be as follows: On the plat of 1818 (Albemarle
County Surveyor's Book, Vol. 2, p. 147), the lots surrounding the
Square are numbered and the open space between the Swan and
Eagle taverns is distinctly marked with a cipher. Two years later,
when this lot was sold from this space, it had no numeral and none
in sequence could be allotted, so that the "nothing" or nought was
used. In confirmation, we find on the 1818 plat that this lot,
bought in 1820, has been sketched in with a different ink and the
owners' names attached—the only lot so treated—which shows that
it was not considered subject to sale when the map was originally
drawn. At some later period, traditions of the slave trade gathered
about this house. Some hold that the lot to the rear was used for
this purpose. Mr. Homan W. Walsh, whose offices—formerly
those of Mr. Dan Harmon—occupy the southern half, informs us:
"I have, of course, heard that the building was used as a slave
auction room. . . . I have never heard of a sign on the wall,
relating to its use as a slave market. When I commenced practicing
law in Mr. Harmon's office in 1906 and for several years afterwards
there was at the side of the office at the curb a large stone,
perhaps 18 inches high by 15 inches wide and 30 inches long, which
it was said was the auction block for selling slaves. . . . It
was taken away years ago by some employees of the city, when
cleaning the streets or paving this section. . . . When we improved
this building in 1925 we made no change in the exterior of
the original building but merely tore down a cheaply built extension
which had apparently in recent years been added at the rear."
To this he adds that since writing, a southern snow brought out
for an hour some black lettering through the paint on the southern
side of his office, facing the Monticello Hotel, as follows: "—BENSON
AND BRO. AUCTION ROOMS." As the Bensons were
for years the town auctioneers, and this sign was just over the auction
block, we may infer that all auctions were conducted here, and
thus when slaves were brought in, their dealers made use of these
facilities.
109 East Jefferson Street, facing Lee Park. John H. was
nephew to William A. Bibb, mentioned above. A Louisa County
family.
Founded by Charles Harper of Spring Hill, near Ivy, and
Valentine W. Southall, whose home occupied the block now the
site of Lee Park. In later years his daughter, Mrs. Col. Charles
S. Venable, resided there, and the chief kindergarten of the community
was conducted in an office in the yard by Miss Charlie
Petrie, sister of Dr. George L. Petrie, pastor for fifty years (18781928)
of the Charlottesville Presbyterian Church.
That is, next towards the north—the building previously
mentioned as next to No. Nothing. It still stands, 223 Court
Square. This lot, without building, was bought in 1815 from Edmund
Anderson (Albemarle County Deed Book 19, p. 410), by
James Leitch, who in 1825 made gift of it to his son Andrew, being
"the lot on which my storehouse now stands", ibid., Book 56,
p. 381. The quiet little Sixth Street upon which it faces is described
as "the main road leading from Charlottesville to Moore's
ford."
The home of E. L. Bailey, 222 Court Square, covers the
sites of the Library and Leschot's shop. This brick building was
erected by Richard Matthews, who bought the lot in 1836 from
Andrew Leitch (ibid., Book 33, p. 395). At that time the property
was listed as in the county, "adjoining the East line of the
Town." In 1879 it was purchased from the Matthews heirs by
Thomas Wood (ibid., Book 74, p. 515).
Judge William J. Robertson was a distinguished jurist, having
been elected in 1859 to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia
by popular election over John B. Baldwin. He was attorney
for the State in a number of cases, one being the famous suit
affecting the Arlington property, belonging to the Lee family and
confiscated by the United States. He was the first president of
the Virginia Bar Association. Died, 1898. Tyler, Encyc. of Va.
Biography, Vol. II, p. 67.
Now the site of the law office of Long and Sadler, 218-220
Court House Square. Woods, Albemarle County, p. 358, states
that Yeargain was a citizen of Charlottesville in 1796, in which
year he took out a license for an ordinary. In Albemarle County
Deed Book 14, p. 213, is recorded his purchase in 1803 from Thomas
W. Lewis and John T. Hawkins, for $1,000 cash, of "the lot,
messuage and tenement" on the east side of the Square which became
his home until his death in 1837. Reference is made to
"old" and "new" parts of the dwelling, and at that time it was
bounded on the south by another tenement (small house or cottage).
January 14, 1874
On the southside of the Public Square, where the
Farish Hotel[31]
is located, once stood a two-and-a-halfstory
A verandah, or porch, extended along the whole front
of this building, which, on court-days, was used for the
pedlars. On Saturday and Sunday evenings, the boys
little fun, in seeing the pedlars cross over with their vehicles,
laden with dry goods, tin ware and notions. Pedlars
in that day, to a considerable extent, supplied the
country with many necessary articles, and some of these
pedlars, in after years, settled and became a part of the
people, owning lands, slaves, &c. We recollect some of
these pedlars coming here down to 1835-36.
The proprietor of the hotel was Mr. William D.
Fitch; in 1833 he was succeeded by Mr. John Vowles.
The price of board, room and lodging was then but $10
per month, and travelers paid $1.25 for a day's entertainment
and horse feed, which was the usual price
throughout the State. For 62½ cents a traveller, at
country taverns and houses of private entertainment,
could have supper, lodging, breakfast and horse feed,
and usually the decanter with whiskey and other ardent
spirits was set before the guest on his arrival at night
and ere he commenced his journey next day. The public
room of the Eagle Hotel was a spacious hall, having
in it a large open fireplace, which, in winter time, sent
forth a blazing and roaring hot fire. In one corner of
this public room was situated the bar, having shelves on
which were ranged in order, decanters and bottles of the
ardent—elixir of life. The front of the bar was composed
of a kind of lattice-work, which opened on hinges
like a window, and when opened was fastened up to the
ceiling. In those days, imbibers of the ardent took their
drams publicly, the refinements of the present day of exclusiveness
and darkened windows not having come into
use. In after years, when G. L. Peyton was proprietor
of this hotel, two hundred persons or more dined there
fed and cared for—that was before railroads came into
vogue, and when our farmers sat down to a superb dinner,
and cheerfully paid the landlord fifty cents for it—
not as in the present times, when many bring snacks in
their pockets and eat them while sitting at a fire kept up
by the landlord for the guests of the hotel.
In 1828, the time occupied in reaching this place in
the stage coaches from Richmond was about 28 hours.
Porter, Belden & Co. we think, were the mail contractors,
and they made only three trips per week. In Charlottesville
the stopping place was then the Stone Tavern,[32]
kept by Joel W. Brown. In after years the late
John N. C. Stockton had their coaches stop at the Eagle
Hotel and when the Monticello Hotel was built, adjoining
the Stone Tavern, that was headquarters for the
stage coaches. In the summer, when the travel to the
Virginia springs was at its height, eight or ten coaches
per day, filled with passengers, stopped here to dinner.
The proprietors of this hotel were Messrs. Hill & Terrell
who came here from Orange county. Farish, Ficklin
& Co. were the mail contractors. Landlords, in those
days, took in and dispensed a large amount of hard
money, and our young friend, S. W. F.,[33]
was in his
glory and at the commencement of his full tide of prosperity.
Passengers were each allowed 50 pounds of
baggage; all over was extra and had to be paid for;
scales then decided the weight.
Next to the Eagle Hotel was a handsome block of
buildings, erected about 1826, by the late John Winn,
of Mr. S. W. Ficklin. Mr. Winn was the postmaster,
and for many years a successful merchant. He had
been a co-partner with Twyman Wayt, with Hardin
Davis, who was postmaster when Th. Jefferson became
President of the United States, and also with John W.
Davis, the son of Hardin Davis; the latter gentleman
resided in the house now owned and occupied by John
T. Antrim,[35] and emigrated, after 1825, to Missouri,
where he died. The post office was kept in a room now
occupied by Drury Wood as a law office. The next
store was occupied by Mr. Marshall, who made boots
and shoes, and sold books and fancy articles. Afterwards
drugs, medicines, &c., were sold here for many
years. Dr. J. T. Barclay, who purchased Monticello,
and afterwards went to Jerusalem as a Missionary, and
wrote an interesting volume about that city, entitled,
"The City of the Great King; or Jerusalem as it was,
as it is, and as it is to be," was engaged in the drug business
here for a few years. Dr. Barclay was succeeded
and Wm. Poindexter. This store is now vacant.
All the other parts of this building except the upper
room in the western and southern end of it (which was
the lodge room of the Widow's Son Lodge of Masons)
were used for a hotel, and known as the Jefferson Hotel.
The proprietor was a Mr. Garrett, the Chronicle building
was also then occupied as a part of this hotel. At
the present day all but the store-rooms[36]
in the Winn
block are attached to the Farish House, of which Mr. A.
D. Almond is proprietor. The store-room on the corner
of Court [Fifth] street, now occupied by Allen Bacon,
was once occupied by Mr. Henry Price, merchant tailor,
who afterwards, and till the day of his death, in 1835,
conducted his business in the vicinity of the University.
Mr. Price[37]
was by birth an Englishman, a sociable, intelligent
and whole-souled man; he had been in the English
army, and served in the memorable battle of Waterloo,
and would often recite graphic and interesting descriptions
of that great battle, which dethroned and
made Napoleon a prisoner to the end of his days. Mr.
him that once, in making out an account, and previous
to signing his name to it, he hesitated, passing his fingers
several times through the hair on his head, and then,
rushing out of his store, looked up to his sign, saying:
"Ah, yes! Henry Price! Henry Price!" and returned
into his store and put his name to the account before him.
On the opposite corner of Court street, where John
Mannoni,[38]
confectioner, now keeps, was the dry goods
store of Col. J. Richard Watson. Mr. Watson in after
years, was a magistrate, and removed his place of business
to the corner of the lot on which the Piedmont Female
Institute[39]
now is. He afterwards became a tiller
of the soil and resided on his farm near Milton. He was
as pleasant and agreeable a gentleman as ever Albemarle
produced. His house and table were the dispensers
of his unbounded hospitality. He died since the
war. His only son lost his life in the late war for Independence.
The next store was occupied by Mr. John Cochran,[40]
when the Local first knew it. He did a large mercantile
business for twenty years. He imported from England
the gray cloths which the students of the University
wore when a gray uniform was the prescribed dress of
that institution. His residence, up to 1846, was in the
brick building west of his store. In 1846 he built the
large and beautiful mansion on Park street, in which
he now resides.
These stores were erected in 1826 by the late John
Kelly and their first occupants were Col. Watson and
Mr. Cochran. On the place previous to that time a
large wooden building stood, which was removed to the
lower end of the lot opposite to the old Stone Tavern, on
Market street, and which still remains there. Mr. John
Kelly, previous to the year 1826 was engaged in the
mercantile business, and amassed a fitting competence.
He was a man of sterling integrity and a decided christian
gentleman. He was a Presbyterian, and the chief
contributor to the erection of the Presbyterian church,
which was first opened for worship in this town in the
summer of 1829. In person, he was tall and graceful,
and one of the neatest men in dress and appearance of
his day. Regular and systematic in all things, he never
waited even for his guests beyond the regular hour for
meals or prayer. He was sociable, friendly and charitable,
and was fond of having the young people of the
place at his hospitable and bountiful board. He died,
1830.
Opie Norris, Esq., the son-in-law of John Kelly, had
also been a merchant, and resided in the house on the
Square[41]
recently purchased from his estate by Dr. R.
W. Nelson.[42]
He was a man of mark, an upright magistrate,
a citizen of sterling worth, and as useful and
beneficial to this community as any man that ever lived
troubled with the gout.
Between the above houses and the one now occupied
by Lewellen Wood, Mrs. Sophia Leschot, built a twostory
brick house, and for several years carried on the
mercantile dry goods business. The Square till about
1840 was the principal business mart, but from that time
the old merchants one by one removed to the Main
street, which has since grown up and extended its whole
length with stores and other places of business.
On court days the Square is now usually thronged
with crowds of people, and since the war large crowds
are also to be seen on Main Street, congregated in front
of the National Bank.
This site is now occupied by the east wing of the Monticello
Hotel, Court Square. It is marked on the early survey as Lot I,
and was bought, Oct. 1765, by Benjamin Brown and David Ross,
from Thomas Walker, Commissioner for the town of Charlottesville
(Albemarle County Deed Book 4, p. 205). When Ross sold to
Isaac Miller, 1791, the tavern is mentioned, and from that time to
the present it has been the site of a place of public entertainment.
There have been many changes of ownership: John T. Hawkins
bought, 1801; John M. Sheppard, 1804; Thomas Welles, 1813;
William D. Fitch, 1833; John T. Barksdale, 1842; Nelson Barksdale,
1847; George W. Turpin, 1849; George L. Peyton, 1849.
When William T. Early and William P. Farish bought in 1863 the
name was still Eagle Tavern, but in 1869, when they sold to N. H.
Massie (ibid., Book 63, p. 485), the description reads "formerly
called the Eagle Tavern, but now known as the Farish House."
William P. Farish came to the county from Carolina about 1820.
He was an active man of affairs, and later became a Baptist minister.
During Sheridan's raid, Captain Thomas L. Farish, his son, underwent
the following harrowing experience: he was at that time acting
as Adjutant-General of General H. H. Walker's command in southside
Virginia. Learning that the Federal troops were approaching
Albemarle, he obtained a three-days' leave of absence in order to
return and protect his family. An engine brought him to Colonel
Randolph's at Shadwell (Edgehill). Here he found that the
Colonel was in hiding in the mountains, so leaving a note detailing
his plans, to be carried by a colored boy who regularly transmitted
food, he crossed the river to Milton. Here he concealed
his uniform by hanging it down an old well, and, donning a shabby
work-suit provided by his friend Mr. Benjamin Pace, he pushed
on across Monticello Mountain. Unfortunately, the boy was captured
by scouts and the note taken. For some reason it was believed
to be from General Early, and Sheridan sent bloodhounds to
aid the hunt.
The Captain was at length found on the town side of the mountain,
hidden between two fallen trees. He was taken to the headquarters
of a Colonel Wells, which chanced to be at Belmont, near
Verdant Lawn, the home of the prisoner's father. Here he was
of course recognized, but the Federals suspecting a ruse, and still
thinking him to be Early, he was taken quickly to the headquarters
of General Custer. This proved to be his own home, The
Farm, now the residence of Mrs. George R. B. Michie. From the
roof of this mansion "signal flags were floating in all directions."
Here a small daughter cried out, "Oh, Mamma, they've got Papa!"
and this established his identity. General Custer showed much concern
and compassion. Receiving him he said, "Captain Farish,
under these unusual circumstances I don't know whether it is my
duty to ask you to take a seat or yours to ask me."
He granted him time to change his dress, and then entered upon efforts
for the prisoner's protection, but as Captain Farish was in
civilian dress Sheridan ordered him hanged as a spy, and workmen
hastily constructed a scaffold beneath one of the giant white oaks upon
the lawn. Custer made repeated and persistent remonstrances
and at length, at twilight, persuaded Sheridan to hear the condemned
man in his own behalf. This commanding officer had headquarters
on Park Street, "in a residence which in 1876 was occupied by
S. V. Southall" (Miss Betsy Coles' home, now the Haden place,
522 Park Street. This clashes with the claims of the John R.
Wood place, 408 Park Street, and of the Mrs. Julia Coles place
—now the Valentine home—303 High Street, to have served as
Sheridan's headquarters). The discussion lasted until midnight,
and a General Forsythe "so far exceeded his duties as a soldier and
the courtesies of a gentleman" that he was freely condemned by
others of the staff. The verdict was at length changed to parole.
(Captain T. L. Farish's own narrative in the Weekly Chronicle,
Charlottesville, Aug. 4, 1876, copy in Alderman Library, University
of Va.)
Tradition states that Custer's command entered town displaying
captured Confederate flags, and the unpublished Memoirs of the
late Judge R. T. W. Duke confirm the local tradition that during
this raid the Woolen Mills and the railroad bridge across the Rivanna
were burned by Federal troops.
This prosperous farm has become Charlottesville's southern
suburb. The transformed old house is at 759 Belmont Avenue. It
was originally the home of John M. Carr, nephew of Dabney Carr,
the boyhood friend of Jefferson. John M. Carr was Clerk of the
District Court of Charlottesville and first Clerk of the Circuit
Court of Albemarle County. He died in 1823. Belmont was
later the home of Slaughter W. Ficklin, who died in 1886.
This old place was on West High Street, opposite Christ
Church, set far back in a sloping lawn with apple trees. In 1836
it was purchased from J. W. Davis by Gov. Thomas Walker Gilmer
and was his home until his death in 1844. Later, it was for
many years the home of Mr. John T. Antrim, Sr. It is now the
site of the Altamont Development.
One of these was later a prosperous grocery run by a Negro
named Edmunds and much patronized by the neighboring lawyers.
Price came to Charlottesville about 1823 and lived in the white
frame house, later the home of J. J. Conner, which long stood on
the corner of 4th and High (312 East High Street), but which has
been moved a short distance and is now the home of the Misses
Wright, 409 4th Street, N. E. Now modernized, it is one of our
oldest buildings. Dr. Thomas Jameson lived here in 1806 and sold
in 1815 to John Kelly. High Street in one of these deeds is called
"the upper street leading out to Jameson's Gap". The building
shows the good workmanship of the period, and the use of wooden
pins for nails.
Woods, Albemarle County, p. 168, states that John Cochran
came to Charlottesville from Augusta County about 1825.
The early history of this residence, 414 East Jefferson Street, is
not certain, but as the lot was a part of the John Kelly square, as
lots three and four of the early survey were known, and the lot
with the brick dwelling on it was sold by Mr. Kelly's heirs in 1879,
it is supposed that Kelly built the property and rented to Cochran.
The building date could not be ascertained. The place was purchased,
1879, by William T. Jones from Mrs. Eliza Bragg (Albemarle
County Deed Book 82, p. 469), and sold by Jones in 1893
to Mrs. Richard Knight Flannagan (Charlottesville Corporation
Court, Deed Book 3, p. 480). It remained the home of this family
for about twenty-six years.
Still standing, 410 East Jefferson Street. Mr. Norris built
this house, having received the half-acre lot—No. 4—in gift from
his father-in-law John Kelly, Feb. 1816 (Albemarle County Deed
Book 20, p. 85). The land deed traces back through Edward Butler
to Samuel Woods, 1779. It remained the home of Norris until
his death in 1839, and of his widow until hers in 1868. His
obituary states that he was the tallest and thinnest man in Charlottesville.
He was for years a Town Trustee, frequently serving
as President, and through his ownership of the present Rugby Road
section be became a county magistrate. In 1806 (ibid., Book 15,
p. 465), we find Opie Norris and Cynthia his wife manumitting a
female slave named Joyce. Between the Cochran and Norris
homes there was later built a brick building which made use of their
side walls on either end. It was erected on Norris land and sold
in 1874 by the Norris estate to B. L. Powell (ibid., Book 69, p. 217).
See this deed for the plat of these buildings which marks the recently
sold Norris home, No. 410, with the name of Dr. R. W. Nelson.
The intermediate house, No. 412, is now known as the E. O.
McCue, Jr. Building.
Dr. Robert W. Nelson of the Belvoir family lived here in
the 1870's, having succeeded in practice his relative, Dr. Robert
Burrell Nelson. He was successively followed in practice by his
son, Dr. Hugh T. Nelson, and by Dr. Hugh T., Jr. Later, Dr.
Robert W. Nelson for a while lived at 205 East High Street, where
the other three also lived and had their offices, and which is still in
possession of the family, making four generations of physicians of
this name in that dwelling.
January 28, 1874
Park Street—This street, in 1828-9, had but few
dwellings compared with what can be seen on it at the
present day. On the right, or eastern side, stood the old
Swan Tavern, and where the Town Hall[43]
now is was
the battery. The next lot where the beautiful mansion
of John Wood, Jr.,[44]
now stands, was a vacant lot; next
Mrs. Milly Jones, a widow lady, and sister to William
Watson, where, on Saturday evenings, prayer-meetings
were usually holden, conducted by Mr. John Kelly and
others. Next house, brick, is the property of Mrs.
James W. Saunders,[45] was at one time occupied by the
Rev. Francis Bowman, then pastor of the Presbyterian
church at South Plains and this town. He afterwards
removed to Georgia, and now in his old age resides with
his son in Harrisonburg, who is the pastor of the Presbyterian
church in that town. His other son, pastor of the
Presbyterian church in Memphis, fell a victim to the
and children of this latter minister returned to this place
last week to reside with her adopted parents, Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas Wood.
The large mansion next to Mrs. Saunders was erected
by the late John Kelly, Esq.,[46]
who resided on it from the
time he quit business on the Square till his death in 1830.
The house is now in the occupancy of Mrs. Moise.
The next residence is now owned by Drury Wood,
Esq.[47]
These were all the houses that were erected at
of S. V. Southall,[48] S. F. Leake,[49] Henry Benson,[50] C. S.
Waltham,[51] B. C. Flannagan,[52] Jno. Wood, Jr., and R.
K. Flannagan, have been erected in later years.
On the west side of Park street was the brick house of
William Watson[53]
the jailor, now the property of
Thomas Wood, Esq., and on the corner of the lot where
the mansion of John Cochran now is, stood a one-a-half
wooden tenement where the widow and family of Dr.
Ragland resided. Mrs. Ragland was the daughter of
Mr. John Kelly, and afterwards married Mr. T. Bragg,
a merchant, who removed to Missouri, where Mrs.
Bragg now resides. There also stood a small wooden
tenement and wagon shop occupied by John A. Williams
on the lot where Mrs. Gen. Long has a female
seminary; and from there to Rock Hill,[54]
the residence
The house next to Th. Wood, with the Mansard roof,[55]
John Cochran's mansion,[56] the female seminary of Mrs.
Gen. Long,[57] the residences of Judge Wm. J. Robertson,[58]
been erected in later years. The residences on this street
are built in good taste, and their situations are lovely
and picturesque, and are well calculated for persons of
means and leisure. Doubtless, in time to come, the
lands attached to these dwellings will be divided and
subdivided, to make room for other households.
In the eastern part of Jefferson street, on the right
side, is the large brick dwelling house[61]
erected by the
of Th. and Drury Wood, lived. In after years, Mr.
Wm. D. Fitch kept a public house, where the Richmond
and Staunton stage coaches put up. The property in
late years was owned by Eugene Davis, Esq., who sold
it to Mr. Young, a gentleman from Louisiana, who now
occupies it.
The next house was the residence of Dr. Charles Carter,[62]
who practiced medicine in this place for many
years. Dr. Carter represented this county for several
years in the House of Delegates. He was a gentleman
of kind, generous and social qualities and highly respected
by the entire community. He was a member of
Widows Son Lodge, also of the Episcopal Church in
this place. He was a lineal descendent of Col. Carter
the Colonial Secretary under George the Second, King
of Great Britain; he owned vast possessions in this part
of Virginia. It was from Secretary Carter that the
range of mountains trending south from Charlottesville
derived their name. Secretary's Ford[63]
had the same
derivation as well as the Secretary Road.[64]
It was a
Secretary Road obtained their designations from
Thomas Jefferson when he was Secretary of State, under
the administration of President George Washington,
but the records of the County Court of Albemarle
will show an order of the court in 1745 which says the
late "Secretary's Ford."
The one-and-half story brick residence[65]
next to the
James Leitch a merchant with whom Th. Jefferson
traded very largely. The late Gov. Thomas W. Gilmer
once occupied this house in 1829-'30. The widow of
James Leitch married David Anderson, Esq., and resided
at Pantops. There is a large open space in front
of the Leitch house, where for years past military
parades have been held, and in late years the base-ballers
have played their exhilarating games.
The brick residences on the south-side of this open
park, erected by Geo. M. McIntire,[66]
Micajah Woods[67]
and C. D. Fishburne,[68]
have been erected since 1830.
Now the Park View Apartment, 350 Park Street. On July 9,
1851, a committee consisting of Valentine W. Southall, John Cochran,
Thos. Wood, S. W. Ficklin, James W. Saunders, John R.
Jones and others bought this lot from Samuel Leitch, Jr., and
Isabella his wife "for the purpose of building a town hall." Albemarle
County Deed Book 50, p. 143. It was long used for
public occasions of all kinds. Later, it was purchased by J. M.
Levy of Monticello and became known as the Levy Opera House.
408 Park St. This is one of the three houses in which varying
traditions place Sheridan's headquarters during the raid of
March 3-6, 1865. According to the memories of this family, during
Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's residence here the ladies of the household
remained in seclusion on the second floor, and Mr. Snowden
Wood of Ivy in later life often related how—he having been a
small boy in the family at that time—his pony was taken by the
soldiers, but his lamentations reaching the General's ears, its return
was promptly ordered. Mrs. Julia Coles's home, now the
Valentine house on High Street, and Miss Betsy Coles's place on
Park Street are the other two claimants. The last is based on an
article in The Weekly Chronicle, Aug. 4, 1876 (eleven years after
the event), which says: "the commanding officer of the Federal
troops had his headquarters on Park Street in a residence which
in 1876 was occupied by S. V. Southall." This confusion probably
arises from the fact that Sheridan's staff officers were also quartered
in the town, including General Wesley Merritt, Colonel
James W. Forsythe, and, according to the unpublished diary of
the late John B. Minor of the University of Virginia, a Captain
Sheridan, nephew to the general.
Still standing at 416 Part Street. Mr. Saunders was the
father of a family of handsome daughters. It was his habit
in the evening, at a fixed hour, to place his open watch on a silver
tray and send it into the parlor by the butler, to be presented to each
gentleman in turn.
506 Park Street. Later, this was long the residence of the
Misses Howard, daughters of Dr. Henry Howard of the University
faculty, they having conducted here a successful school for
girls.
516 Park Street. This was one of the lots laid out in 1813
by Edmund Anderson and known as the Anderson Addition. In
1819 (Deed Book 22, p. 56), Edmund Anderson deeded it to —
Pollock, who, a little later (Book 26, p. 227) sold to J. A. Leitch and
John Timberlake. These, in 1849, deeded it to Drury Wood and
— Carr (Book 47, p. 455). The history of the original house
which was on this lot, and in which Mr. Wood lived, cannot be traced,
but Woods, Albemarle County, p. 207, states that Governor Gilmer
lived here in 1826, and that Francis B. Dyer occupied it prior to
his death in 1838. Mr. Wood, son of Drury Wood the elder of
"Park Hill" near Stony Point, died in 1901. In the same year his
son, the late Mr. James B. Wood, built the present brick dwelling,
now the home of a member of the third generation of this family.
Tradition states that at the time of Tarleton's raid a contingent of
his troops were camped in the fields north of High Street, from
about 4th Street, N. E., to Park Street and as far north as this
place, relics having been uncovered in this vicinity. An anecdote
of the Yankee looting of this old place also survives. Having
broken open a meat house and taken what they wanted, the soldiers
then engaged in a mock battle with the remaining stores of meal and
peas. A small son of the household, outraged by this destruction
of sorely-needed food, at length approached the group and said
firmly, "You fellows better mind out. If my mother catches
you, you'll be sorry!"
522 Park Street, now the home of Dr. W. Dan Haden.
Tradition states that this site was the original "hanging lot", and
the late Mr. Lyt Macon of Tufton related that as a child he was
brought to town by someone—probably a servant—to witness an
execution here. The house was built by Miss Betsy Coles of
Enniscorthy, who bought the lot March 4, 1844 (Albemarle
County Deed Book 41, p. 442). Her death occurred in May,
1865, (see Will Book 27, p. 350) and was caused by alarm and
agitation over Sheridan's raid. (See note 1, pp. 26-28, for
Sheridan in connection with this house.) The property was purchased
from her estate by Mr. Southall, June 2, 1875 (see Deed
Book 69, p. 614), he having been a tenant since about 1869.
532 Park Street. Woods, Albemarle County, pp. 249-50, tells
us: "The career of Shelton F. Leake is well known, not only in
the county, but in the State. His natural gifts were unusually
brilliant. He . . . was admitted to the bar in 1838, easily
attained a place in its front rank, was a member of the House of
Delegates, was Lieutenant Governor of the State, and for a term
[1845-47] represented the district in Congress." He died in 1884.
544 Park Street. The home of the late Mr. William J.
Rucker is upon this site. Allen Dawson, early educator, in his
later years moved his Boys' School from Main Street to a building
on this lot.
This possibly refers to the dwelling between the Benson and
Flannagan houses, 554 Park Street, now known as the Hanckel
place. The old part of this house was built about 1840-45, probably
by John H. Timberlake. It changed hands frequently, and
was rented for a time by the late Mason Gordon. The north wing
was added by Louis T. Hanckel, who bought the property from
Geo. R. Crigler of Orange County, May 11, 1876, being already its
occupant. Mr. Hanckel was the son of Dr. James Stuart Hanckel
of Charleston, S. C., who in 1868 was called to the rectorship of
Christ Church in Charlottesville, where he served for twenty-four
years—until death—being an outstanding member of the community.
Mr. L. T. Hanckel was a lawyer, a bank president and a
successful business man. As mayor, he was responsible for the
introduction of our modern sewerage system. This residence is still
the home of descendants. Bruce, History of Virginia, Vol. IV, pp.
58, 59.
598 Park Street, now the home of Mr. A. G. Carter. It is
believed that the house was built by John H. Timberlake for his
aunt, Mrs. B. C. Flannagan. This property, consisting of 32 acres,
was bought in 1901 from the Trustees of Mrs. M. M. and Mrs.
M. S. Durrette by the late Judge Thomas Barton Lyons of Birmingham,
Ala. (Albemarle County Deed Book 94, p. 459). Its
grounds have been converted into building sites and Lyons Avenue
commemorates this family's association with the estate.
Rugby Avenue. Now the home of Dr. H. A. Porter. It was
bought from Meriwether Anderson by James Fife in 1839, and
has changed hands a number of times since, having been more
recently the home of Major Eugene Bradbury.
Still standing at 427 Park Street. This was the home of
Robert Poore. In the 'fifties Miss Lizzie Poore conducted here a
successful school for small children, music being a feature of the
curriculum and the pupils numbering about twenty. It was later
the home of Miss Virginia Carrington, who, following a visit to
France at the close of the War between the States, erected the
Mansard roof, then a novelty in this section. Still later, this was
long the home of the Misses Ross.
The Cochran house has been pulled down. It was a large
brick dwelling with a noted box walk, and was built by John Cochran
of Augusta County, who bought the lot in 1829 but built in
1846. It remained his home until his death in 1883. The site
covered several of our modern lots and the house stood about at
563 Park Street, now the home of Mr. Robert A. Watson.
"Northwood", now 551 Park Street. This old house was
built by Mr. John B. Minor, prior to his appointment to the Professorship
of Law at the University in 1845. The Geo. E. McIntires
were living here in 1848, while their High Street home was
building. Then Mrs. Julia Minor Holladay of Spotsylvania
County bought it and made it her home until about 1869. She
sold the north part of her lawn for the Robertson lawn, and the
Sinclair place, 547 Park Street, was built in her flower garden.
Mr. Dabney C. Davis lived here a short while, preceding Mrs.
Long. Of Mrs. Long's "Northwood School", Miss C. E. Wills,
now of Fairfield, Penn., writes: "It had become quite well established
by the 1870's. Several small boys were pupils—Mrs. Long's
sons, Sumner and Mac, Dallas Flannagan and Muscoe Shackelford.
The Misses Lucy and Annie Shackelford were among the
young lady pupils, Stella and Leta Reierson and Lottie Benson
among the smaller girls. The French teacher was Mademoiselle
Cataldi." In 1884 Mrs. Holladay sold "Northwood" to Mrs.
Charles P. Benson (Albemarle County Deed Book 83, p. 414). It
was later long the home of Mr. William H. Wood, whose family remain
the owners.
595 Park Street. This home was long a landmark in the
social life of the state. The great oaks upon the lawn were lost in
the drought of 1930, and the house has been modernized.
Now the Christ Church rectory, 599 Park Street. Built
by Judge Egbert R. Watson about 1856, and the family's home
until his death in 1887. During the occupancy of the town by
Union troops a northern colonel and his orderly were quartered here.
Both conducted themselves with much consideration, and the officer,
at Judge Watson's request, stationed guards at a number of
houses occupied by unprotected women. A handsome Newfoundland
dog, which had been the Colonel's companion throughout the
war, strayed back to this home about a week after the troops had left.
Judge Watson sent a letter through the lines to the Colonel telling
of its whereabouts, and immediately after the surrender at Appomattox
the orderly came for it.
1035 Park Street. Originally named "Meadlands". In
1847 Mr. Richard K. Meade, rector of Christ Church, bought the
tract from John W. Davis of Missouri and made it his home (Albemarle
County Deed Book 45, p. 193). He sold in 1868 to B. A.
Shepherd of Texas (ibid., Book 63, p. 542), and he, in 1883, sold
to Dr. Charles Hardenburg Hedges of Somerville, New Jersey.
It remains the home of a son, Dr. Halstead Shipman Hedges.
704 E. Jefferson Street. Captain Eugene Davis had lived
here with his wife's widowed mother, Mrs. James Maury Morris
of the Green Springs family, before building and removing to his
home "Willoughby" on the old Lynchburg road. Later, this house
was long the home of Major Horace Jones, who conducted one of
the most successful preparatory schools of this region.
802 East Jefferson Street. Still standing. Built by Dr.
Carter in 1820, the third story was added at a later date. Still
the home of a descendant.
The ford used on the Three Notched Road, where Tarleton
crossed, and where the Woolen Mills now stand.
Woods, Albemarle County, p. 68, tells us: "the Secretary's
Road has frequent mention in the early records. It set out from
Carter's Mill on the north fork of Hardware, shortly above its
union with the south fork, ran on the north side of that river to
Woodridge, and thence pursued the watershed between it and the
Rivanna to Bremo on the James. From its lower terminus it was
sometimes called the Bremo, corrupted to Brimmer, Road."
Now 901 East Jefferson-Street. Before the addition of the
modern front it faced west, towards the Square. In later years
it was known as the Morgan house.
Further to the east stood the Albemarle Female Institute, a successful
school founded by the Albemarle Baptist Association in
1857. It was purchased in 1860 by Professor John Hart, who
conducted it until 1874. Under his control, the faculty was undenominational.
In 1875 it became the property of Professors
R. H. Rawlings and W. P. Dickinson; they conducted it at first
jointly, then Mr. Dickinson directed it alone until his death. In
1895, Rev. L. H. Shuck of Wake Forest College and the University
of North Carolina became the Principal. He was succeeded
in 1897 by the Rev. H. W. Tribble with the title of President of
Rawlings Institute, Mr. Rawlings having donated his three-fourths
interest in the property to the Baptist denomination at that time.
The school closed in 1909. Shortly afterwards, the property was
bought by the Episcopal Church, and St. Anne's, a Church School
for Girls, was opened there in 1910. This school has removed to
the University suburbs. The old building, at present unused, is
still standing at the junction of East Jefferson and Tenth Street.
(Taken from "A History of Private Schools in Charlottesville,"
by Harold Mopsik, M.S. Thesis—University of Virginia, 1936.)
The handsome old McIntire house, built about 1848, was
pulled down to make way for the Hughes Esso Filling Station,
corner of E. High and 9th Streets. This is one of the houses which
was thoroughly searched for food during the occupation of the town
by northern troops in the spring of 1865, even a school girl's trunk
being emptied. A superb black oak in the yard, long known as
the McIntire Oak, has now become erroneously associated with
Tarleton's raid.
809 East High Street. Mr. Woods served for thirty-three
years as Commonwealth's Attorney for the county. He was the
son of Dr. John R. Woods of "Holkham", near Ivy, and a descendant
of the original Michael. As captain of The Monticello Guard,
he commanded that company at the Yorktown celebration,
October, 1881.
803 East High Street. Still the home of a descendant.
Mr. C. D. Fishburne—"Old Clem" to his many friends—was born
in Staunton, Va., but spent his childhood in Waynesboro. In early
life he was for five years Professor of Latin at Davidson College.
Having served with the Rockbridge Artillery during the War between
the States, he later studied law at the University of Virginia,
practiced for a short while, edited the Chronicle for a year,
and then became cashier of the Albemarle Bank, a position which
he held until his death in 1937. He was groomsman at the second
marriage of Stonewall Jackson. A son of this household was the
late John W. Fishburne, Judge of the Circuit Court for seventeen
years and later member of Congress from this district.
February 11, 1874
Market Street.—The house[69]
on the corner of Market
and First [East 7th] streets, now the residence of
A. R. Blakey, Esq., was, in 1828, occupied by the Rev.
Frederick W. Hatch, rector of Christ church[70]
in this
Charlottesville, officiating two Sundays in the month in
each of these churches. He was a good classical scholar,
and taught quite a large number of the youth of that
day. Although not popular with the masses, he was a
sterling Christian man, generous, benevolent and plain
spoken, and he had in him a vein of dry humor. On one
occasion a stranger preached in the Courthouse on a
week day evening, who was, we think, an Englishman.
In his discourse he had much to say respecting clergymen,
and used some severe criticisms respecting their
lives and luxurious living, rolling about in costly fourwheeled
chariots and coaches. "If," said he, "the vail
[sic] that covers the bottomless pit could be lifted, the
audience would see these robed clergy, in company with
the devil and his angels, enveloped in the flames of hell."
A person who was present repeated these remarks to
Mr. H., who in the dryest humor said the preacher could
not possibly have meant to describe him, as he had never
owned any other carriage than a wheelbarrow, and he also
remarked that he had told his brother, the Presbyterian
minister, Rev. F. Bowman, that possibly he might
be meant, as he owned and rode about in a one-horse
two-wheeled buggy.
It is reported that a man having a basket with chickens
on his arm stopped in front of the residence of Mr.
H., and hailed him thus: "Can you marry me?" "Yes
sir," said the parson. "Will you take chickens for the
marriage fee?" "Certainly," was the answer. The
hailed a woman who was standing a short distance off,
"Come on, Sukey, he says he'll take chickens for his
pay." The marriage ceremony was performed, the bride
and groom standing in the yard, and the parson on the
door steps.
Another story about this clergyman is, that he rode
some distance from town to perform the marriage ceremony,
and the groom said, after it was over, "Look-ahere,
Parson, I've got no money; won't you take gourds
for pay?" The gourds were tied together and thrown
across the horse of the minister, and he rode to town with
them dangling on either side of his saddle, to the no
small amusement of the people along the route. Rev.
Mr. Hatch had good vegetable gardens in which he was
fond of working in the early morn and at evenings, and
here he might be seen using his carriage, the wheelbarrow.
The first fig tree we ever saw which bore fruit
was reared by Mr. H. The ministrations of Mr. Hatch
continued for about five years, when he removed to the
State of New York, where he died several years since.
On the opposite side of the street was a small brick
house in which Mrs. Davenport, sister to Alexander and
Ira Garrett, Esqs., resided. This house was afterwards
enlarged, and is now the Piedmont Female Institute.[72]
here and built a two-story wooden tenement for his mercantile
business. This building was in later years used
for a female academy by Rev. S. H. Mirick, a Baptist
clergyman, now in Washington city; and when he enlarged
the brick house to its present dimensions, the
wooden building was removed down the turnpike road,
and is at this time the residence of Mr. C. L. Thompson.
Rev. Mr. Mirick had a large and flourishing school here
for several years when he was succeeded by Col. Richard
Wyatt, and he by Miss Annie Leaton, now Mrs. R. K.
Meade, who is the principal at this time of the Institute.
The Blue Ridge Turnpike Company,[73]
in 1828-29,
opened the road to the Meriwether bridge, a short distance
from the Secretary ford. The old stage road up
to that time was through Carlton,[74]
the farm of Col.
and came out a little below the residence of S. W.
Ficklin.
A former resident of the little brick house was Mr.
Jacob Wimer, a blacksmith, an industrious, hard-working
mechanic; he was the owner of no real estate, but by
his business acquired a sufficiency to rear and educate his
family, and lived in comfortable circumstances. He
was respected and trusted by his neighbors. He had a
son by the name of John, who had been reared by his
father to habits of industry and hard work in his shop.
John Wimer was bright, intelligent and of quick parts.
His education was of the kind usually to be acquired in
the private schools of that day in this vicinity. In the
year 1829-30, Mr. Jacob Wimer and family emigrated
to the West, to better their condition, and made St.
Louis, Mo., their home. There the old business was
their labors. The son improved his mind by study, and
conducted himself in a way to secure the respect and
confidence of his neighbors and the citizens of St. Louis;
he became popular, was elected Mayor of that city, in
which capacity he served several years, was judge of one
of the courts and President of the Pacific railroad. In
the late war he was Colonel of a regiment in the Confederate
Army and was killed at Hartsville, Ky.
The next lot is the Old Stage Yard[75]
of the late J. N.
C. Stockton, Esq. West of this, where Dr. John Thornley
resides in his beautiful house,[76]
once the Farmers'
Bank of Virginia, stood a two-story wooden building,
40 by 20 feet, which connected with a mansion in the
centre of the lot which, in the early days of the town, was
kept as a hotel. This property for 50 years belonged to
the family of Mr. Butler, a cabinetmaker, whose widow
L. Fowler,[77] and who, with his half-brothers, Alexander
and James Butler, sold it to the Farmers' Bank and to
the late John B. Dodd.
In the year 1781, the Legislature of Virginia held its
sessions in these buildings, when Tarleton with his cavalry
made their raid into the town to capture Mr.
Thomas Jefferson, the members of the Legislature and
the 6,000[78]
British and Hessian prisoners of Gen. Burgoyne's
army, who were encamped on the farm now belonging
to George Carr, Esq., six miles northwest from
Charlottesville. Tarleton failed in his expedition to
capture Mr. Jefferson and the Legislature,[79]
and the
the British colonel to make the attempt, with the force
he then had under him, to capture them. By the way,
the negroes at Monticello still deceive visitors by showing
them the marks on the floor of the hall in that building
which they say were made by the hoofs of the horse
Tarleton rode into the dwelling of Mr. Jefferson. Col.
Tarleton never was at Monticello; he stayed in town,
and his lieutenant-colonel, McCloud, had charge of the
squad sent up there, and he would not permit any of his
men to enter the house of Mr. Jefferson or destroy the
property.
The old Stone Tavern, or, as it was called, the Central
Hotel,[80]
built in 1806 by the late James Monroe, the 5th
President of the United States, occupied the lot opposite
the Fowler residence, and in 1858 was kept by
Mr. Joel W. Brown. At that time he boarded his
guests and furnished them with lodging rooms at eight
dollars per month. The late Mr. Thomas Grady was his
bar-keeper and chief manager. In after years the fourstory
brick building now known as the Monticello house
was built and attached to the Stone Tavern, which attracted
a large traveling custom till the advent of railroads,
female Seminary. During the late war the Monticello
House was used as a hospital for the sick and wounded
of the Confederate army. In 1852 [1862?] the stone
building was destroyed by fire, while occupied by the
sick soldiers, and since the war the stone materials were
used in the erection of the Charlottesville Milling and
Manufacturing Company's building.
The wooden house that for several years stood on the
lot on the corner of Market and Union streets was
brought up from Milton, when that place ceased to be a
business mart, and this was the house that the late Martin
Dawson, Esq., made his fortune in a large part of
which he bequeathed to the University of Va., and the
counties of Albemarle and Nelson, for educational purposes.
Last year the house was again taken down and
put up near town on the Scottsville Road, on land that
was part of the farm of Alexander Garrett, Esq.
Now the residence of Dr. W. D. Macon, 200 East 7th Street.
Diagonally across from this house stands a frame cottage, 213 East
7th Street. This is one of the transplanted Milton houses, of which
we have the following record: The lot, No. 9, was surveyed in
Anderson's Addition, April 2, 1819 (Albemarle County Surveyor's
Book 2, p. 149). In the same year Edmund Anderson purchased
the lot from John Waymann. Anderson sold the lot, May 13, 1829,
to Charles Everett (Deed Book 28, p. 312), and in 1848 Richard
Matthews bought from Everett the "house and lot" at this location
(Deed Book 48, p. 278). This shows that Everett put the house
there. Dr. Everett had lived on High Street and practised his
profession for a short while at the beginning of the century; he
then removed to his county estate, Belmont, adjoining Edgehill
near Milton. Persistent tradition has held that the house was
brought from Milton, and Mr. J. S. Fitch, who a few years ago
restored it, states that it had evidently undergone that experience,
being built of re-used material such as is distinctive of those houses.
It is now owned by Miss Therese Molyneaux.
This building was of brick in colonial style, with deeply recessed
porch, and pillars. Turning its back on High Street, it
faced into its own churchyard, brick-walled and ivied, and containing
a few graves. It was erected 1824-25, and was the first
denominational building in the village. The plan was furnished,
though not designed, by Mr. Jefferson, and the church owns the
prayer book used and autographed by him and containing the
whole of a hymn which he copied. Being outgrown by its congregation,
this church, which stood on the present site, was demolished
in 1895.
Now the Children's Home, 710 East Market Street. We do
not now know the name of the school conducted by Mr. Mirick.
Under Mrs. Meade, and later the Misses Meade, an Episcopal
school named the Piedmont Female Institute was conducted successfully
here for two generations. It closed in 1905. See Mrs.
Jennie Thornley Grayson, "Piedmont Institute Catalogue, 18571858,"
Papers of the Albemarle County Historical Society, Vol. II
(1941-42), pp. 9-[16].
The Blue Ridge and Rivanna Turnpike, built by a local corporation
of which Opie Norris was Secretary and Treasurer. It
ran from the Woolen Mills west, varying from the old Three
Notched (stage) Road in its course through town, but joining and
largely co-inciding with it to its destination at Brooksville, near
the foot of Afton Mountain. Tolls were taken. The east end of
this turnpike is the present East Market Street. Woods, Albemarle
County, p. 70.
On March 12, 1812, Richard Overton conveyed 800 acres
lying on a spur of Monticello and on both sides of Moore's Creek
(Deed Book 18, p. 27), to Charles L. Bankhead and wife. Overton
had bought the land a few years earlier, a part from Edward Carter,
the larger portion from Nicholas M. Lewis of The Farm. Its
eastern line joined Monticello "near a remarkable hole in the
ground." Young Bankhead was the son of Dr. John Bankhead of
Caroline County, Virginia, and in 1808 had married Anne Cary
Randolph, daughter of Gov. Thomas Mann Randolph of Edgehill
and granddaughter of Jefferson. They built Carlton, the name
presumably being formed from that of the owner. Charles Bankhead
was not a successful manager, and in 1815 Dr. Bankhead was
appointed trustee and resided with his son.
In 1833 Carlton was purchased by Judge Alexander Rives of
the Castle Hill family. He was a prominent lawyer, serving in
both houses of the State Legislature, as member of Congress, and
as Judge of the United States Court for the Western District of
Virginia, following the War between the States. Under his care
this was a beautiful place. In 1874 (Deed Book 68, p. 486), he sold
to B. H. Brennan of Buffalo, New York, who for a short time conducted
a private bank in Charlottesville. Mr. Brennan at his own
expense made a $75,000 private macadam road from Market Street
to Carlton, one of the first examples of this method of road-building
in the county. This is now Carlton Ave. Later, Carlton was the
home of R. H. Rawlings. The house was burned, 1894-95; a second
house was built but is no longer standing, and the site has become a
cemetery, the Monticello Memorial Park.
This was one of the earliest building sites, Joel Terrell, who
died in 1773, having had his home here. The Mr. Butler mentioned
was an Irish political refugee.
Dr. John Thornley, Surgeon in the U. S. Navy, brought his
family to this home in 1867, where they resided until his death
in 1887. He was born in King George County, Virginia, commissioned
in 1841, and saw service, in the old sailing vessels, through
the Mexican War and in many seas. He was a vestryman of
Christ Church for nearly twenty years, and a warden at the time
of his death. He is remembered as having appeared before the
Town Council to protest the building of a livery stable in the heart
of the town, stating that long observation had led him to believe
the fly to be one of the greatest enemies of the human race. Being
well ahead of his day, his warning was disregarded and the
stable erected.
A story survives of Mr. C. L. Fowler's childhood which
should be of general interest. As a small boy it was his custom to
sit on a gate post at this home, and he would frequently speak to
Mr. Jefferson as he rode past. A friendship developed and it was
a common sight to meet the old statesman on his way around town,
with the child "riding behind." After some years he obtained for
his protege a berth on a ship of the navy, but as the boy was only
twelve years old, his mother refused her consent.
Woods, Albemarle County, p. 46, says: ". . . It is a
question of some interest where the Legislature held its sessions.
. . . No authentic tradition in regard to it has been handed
down. It has been claimed, that they convened in the tavern which
stood on the corner of Market and Fifth Streets, where the City
Hall now stands. The same claim has been made respecting the
old Swan Tavern. The house [no longer standing], which is
situated in the rear of the late Thomas Wood's, and which is said
to have been removed from the public square in front of the court
house as a cottage of the Eagle Tavern, has also been pointed out
as the building; but it is not likely that the Eagle Tavern was
built as early as the Revolutionary War. The strong possibility
is that the courthouse was the place of their meeting. It may have
been this circumstance that brought Tarleton's vengeance on its
contents; and for nearly fifty years subsequent to that date, it
afforded accommodation to almost all the public assemblies of the
town, both civil and ecclesiastical."
Its site is now occupied by the Market Street Motors, 402-414
East Market Street. It was at this hotel that an address and public
reception were tendered Lafayette upon his visit to Mr. Jefferson
in November 1824. There have been at least three Central Hotels
in Charlottesville.
March 4, 1874
In a former paper, we stated that one of the objects
of the raid made by Col. Tarleton in 1781 in this place,
was to capture the 6,000 English and Hessian prisoners
encamped in this vicinity, Such has been the generally
received opinion among our citizens, but is a mistake;
these prisoners were removed from here for safekeeping,
some time previous to the visit of Tarleton, and no more
than 2,800[81]
were ever captured during the Revolution.
On the corner of Market and Union [East 4th]
streets, where Mr. Joseph Bowman resides, was the residence
of Mr. Peter Lott. He is represented to have
been a fine looking man, sensible, friendly and charitable.
He was a Mason in good standing and of good
repute. He owned the whole lot on which the houses of
Mr. Bowman, Dr. Dabney,[82]
F. M. Wills'[83]
residence,
and adjoining buildings, and the old Baptist church
building[84]
now stand. Mr. Lott was never married, and
by his will gave this property to the heirs of Peter
Schenck. This Mr. Schenck was the owner of the lot
west of the Episcopal church, on which the fine Mansard
mansion[85]
of N. H. Massie, Esq., now stands; and he also
owned the hill adjoining it, down to, and perhaps included,
the stream called Schenck's (Skank's) branch.
The Schenck family removed to Ohio, and Gen.
Schenck, now United States Plenipotentiary to Great
Britain, is a descendant of this family. (Gen. Schenck,
him a prisoner for ten days, taking good care of him all
the time, feasting him, furnishing him with newspapers,
cigars, &c., but failed to convince him that secession was
wrong. In 1847 when S. W. Ficklin was travelling in
Europe, he made an Austrian General get out of bed
and give him a passport, which prevented his passing
three lonesome days in Austria. Gen. Schenck was not
quite so accommodating to the Belmont farmer.)
Mr. Lott, we have been informed, died in 1801, and
was buried in the square of land that he owned. Up to
1840, and perhaps later, a handsome gravestone, with
Masonic emblems on it, could be seen there. Mr. T. W.
Savage, who occupied the Lott house from 1828 to 1840,
informs us that the remains of Peter Lott were never
removed; the tombstone is not standing there now; it
may have been removed when the late Dr. Hughes built
the fine brick residence now owned by Dr. Dabney.
The late Hardin Massie and Mr. John Cochran, in
1826, purchased this lot, the latter soon afterwards selling
his half of it to Dr. Massie. In 1831 the newly constituted
Baptist church purchased the north-east corner
of this lot and erected a house of worship thereon which
they occupied till 1855, when they built their present
large and commodious church on the corner of Church
[2nd N. E.] and Jefferson streets.
The houses on Jefferson street where Mr. Heller and
Mr. L. Waddell[86]
reside were erected some dozen years
since.
In the middle of Market street, west of Dr. Dabney,
stood the market house, which was used as such for several
years, and was then demolished; another market
house was afterwards erected on the same street, two
squares west, and this has also been demolished, and now
we have five butchers' stalls in the town, two of them
flanking the Jeffersonian office, north and south.
The brick house on the corner of Market and School
[East 3rd] streets, by the first market house, was the
property of, and occupied by, Daniel Keith, an Irishman,
who acted in the capacity of constable; we knew
him as an enthusiastic Democrat. The late Dr. James
resided in this house, previous to the one he purchased
on High Street,[87] (Maiden Lane) where he died
June 5th, 1862.
The old Presbyterian church,[88]
on the corner of
Church and Market streets, was erected in 1828, and
opened for public worship in the Summer of 1829. This
building was a plain brick structure which stood till
1856, when it was taken down and the present Gothic
church erected. One of the doors of this old church is
now the door to the tobacco factory of Richard Flannagan,
on Random Row.
All the houses west of this church, on Market street
have been erected in late years. The Disciples' (Christian)
Church was built in 1836.
The corporation limits in 1828 did not extend farther
west than the square on which the second market house
James Bishop, and the east end of the lot now owned by
Mr. C. L. Fowler, was the line west, and the line east[90]
was along the Eagle Tavern, (Farish House) and the
chimney of the house occupied by T. P. Collier, on Main
street. The lots on the north-side of High street were
added to the corporation several years after the town
was incorporated, we believe by Mr. Jouett, and as they
did not correspond in width with those of the other lots
laid off in 1762, all our cross streets are irregular, as any
person can see by looking. The Episcopal church projects
some distance out into the street, according to the
old plan, but, perhaps, correct according to Jouett's addition.
On the square of Peter Lott, quite a number of persons
were buried, and on one of the lots of the late Alexander
Garrett, Esq., adjoining his residence, now the
property of Rev. T. W. Ware,[91]
many persons were interred,
and gravestones are still to be seen there. A
Presbyterian minister by the name of Lumpkin, Dr.
Jameson and other prominent citizens of that day, are
interred there. The lot where Drury Wood, Esq., now
were burial places for many persons. It seems to us that
the relatives and friends of those who are thus interred
in private town lots ought to have their remains removed
ere the necessity occurs to erect dwellings on them and
the bones of many a good person scattered about and
trampled under the feet of the present generation.
Mr. Jefferson in a letter to Governor Henry, Mar. 27, 1779,
estimates the number of Barracks prisoners as four thousand.
Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies of Thomas Jefferson,
edited by T. J. Randolph, Vol. I, p. 157.
307 East Market Street. Recently occupied by the Blue
Ridge Club. It was built by Dr. Hughes, and later the home
of Dr. Wm. Cecil Dabney of the Dunlora family, who became
Professor of the Practice of Medicine at the University of Virginia
in 1886. This house was at one time the home of Dr. W. C. N.
Randolph, whose later home was razed to make way for the Charlottesville
Public Library.
This stood on the southwest corner of East Jefferson and
North Fourth Streets, facing on Fourth Street. Later it was made
into apartments and at length razed.
315 2nd Street, N. W. The first builder upon this site was
Cornelius Schenk, who bought the lot in 1792. Mr. Massie erected
the present dwelling soon after the War between the States; it is
believed that four rooms of the original building were retained.
Later, this was known as the Harrison Robertson place.
Error. Upon his arrival in Charlottesville in 1874 Mr. Lyttelton
Waddell resided on the south side of Market Street near 3rd.
The building still stands, having been moved to face on 3rd, 112
3rd St., N. E. Mr. Waddell afterwards occupied the old house on
Green Street, now 511 N. First Street, the home of Mrs. J. Webb
Fry. This building was burned on the night of Dec. 21, 1880, the
Waddell family's narrow and sensational escape creating great excitement
in the little community. (W. W. Waddell, "Charlottesville
in 1875," Papers of the Albemarle County Historical Society, Vol.
II (1941-42), p. 5.) Earlier, this had been a Gilmer home, and
after being rebuilt within the original walls it was for long the
home of Mrs. Bayard Randolph. To the south of this house, at No.
509, was the home of Mr. George Perkins, son of Judge William
Allen Perkins of Cumberland County. He was one of the outstanding
members of the strong bar of that period, and practised
law in partnership with his father-in-law, Judge Egbert R. Watson,
the firm being for years Watson and Perkins. Later, it became
Perkins and Perkins, then Perkins, Perkins and Walker, and
is now Perkins, Battle and Minor. The large brick dwelling farther
north, No. 521, was built before 1876 by Alexander P. Abel,
a teller in the Monticello Bank. It was long the home of Mr. Carter
H. Page of the Keswick family, and then of Mr. Frank A.
Massie, whose family are still its owners. On the east side of this
street, No. 436, is the dwelling built in 1873 by Mrs. Virginia
Hancock, widow of Dr. Francis Hancock of Richmond. It remains
the home of members of this family.
Now the home of Dr. J. O. Mundy, 115 East High Street.
Dr. James A. Leitch purchased this lot, Nov., 1848, from Dr.
William S. White, pastor of the Presbyterian Church and head of
the Presbyterian Female Seminary, which he conducted at his
home on 2nd Street, now the Presbyterian Manse. No improvements
are listed in the sale, so it is inferred that Dr. Leitch built
the house. Following his death, it became the home of his daughter,
Mrs. A. P. Bibb, and was long the home of this family.
A block to the east, 215 East High Street, is one of the old houses
of the town. J. A. G. Davis is believed to have built it, and to
have made it his home during the building of his permanent home,
The Farm, as in 1825 he bought this lot from Charles Brown,
"with all appurtenances," but no house specifically mentioned.
In 1827 he sold to his sister-in-law, Martha Jane Minor, widow of
Dabney Minor, the house being mentioned, and rights to use of
the pump being granted to neighbors living on that block, they
paying their pro rata share towards its upkeep. The street is
called "North Street, or Maiden Lane." Following the death at
the University of J. A. G. Davis, his family returned to their old
home at The Farm, later coming to live in this house, presumably
with Mrs. Davis's sister, Mrs. Minor. In 1864 (Albemarle County
Deed Book 61, p. 140), Robert N. Trice and Lucy Jane his wife
(daughter of Mrs. Minor, d. 1860) sold to Benjamin Wood, who in
1876 sold to Jennie L. Burnley, wife of Horace B. Burnley, (ibid.,
Book 70, p. 97). It remained their home until the 1890's. Horace
B. Burnley served as Clerk of the County Court, being succeeded
in office by Snowden Wood of Ivy, and in turn by William L.
Maupin, Sr., and Drury Burnley, brother of the above.
The next house to the east, 303 East High Street, was built,
prior to the War Between the States, by Mrs. Julia Stricker Coles,
widow of Isaac A. Coles of Enniscorthy, who made it her home.
It was afterwards the home of Henry Shackelford of Culpeper,
Judge of the Circuit Court, who died in 1880. Mrs. Gen. Long
next lived and taught here for a few years, and it was later bought
by Trustees of the Presbyterian Church and used for a Presbyterian
Girls' School, under Dr. Young. In 1897, Mr. R. P. Valentine
bought the property from the Trustees (Charlottesville Corporation
Court Deed Book 8, p. 206), and made it his home. It is
still the home of a descendant.
This stood at 200 East Market Street. Upon the building of
the present Charlottesville Presbyterian Church in 1897 the
"Gothic" building became for a while the Y. M. C. A. Business
buildings now occupy the spot. The pastor of this church from
1866 to 1877 was Dr. Edgar Woods, author of the [History of] Albemarle
County, to whom all succeeding local antiquarians must feel
indebted. Born in 1827, he was a scion of the Albemarle family
and a descendant of the original Michael Woods. In 1877 he purchased
Pantops and founded the well-known Academy there. For
many years his stalwart figure was a familiar sight at the Clerk's
Office, where his leisure hours were spent in scanning the then unindexed
county records. His death occurred in 1908. Anne Eliza
Sampson, Kith and Kin . . . (Richmond, Va., 1922), pp.
114, 121-23.
This tannery in part was upon the present site of the A. and
P. Super Market, W. Market Street. The C. L. Fowler lot was
the one on Vinegar Hill now used by the Fowler's Valet Cleaners,
228 W. Main Street. It originally had a frontage of sixty-five feet.
Now the site of the eastern end of the Monticello Hotel on
the Square. The small wooden Collier house no longer stands, but
it was on the south side of East Main, between Fifth and Seventh
Streets.
T. A. Ware was a Methodist minister. His wife was Jeannie
Pretlow, grand-daughter of Alexander Garrett. Garrett Street was
originally named Pretlow Street.
March 11, 1874
One day last week we stood in the cemetery of the late
Col. Nimrod Bramham, while the remains of his greatgrand-daughter
were interred, and the voice of prayer
ascended to heaven from the lips of Rev. J. C. Long, the
Baptist pastor. The cemetery is a large enclosed square
of ground, and the dead for five or more generations repose
there. It is a quiet, sunny spot, and the periwinkle
which creeps around the tombs of the silent dead was in
full bloom, its bright blue flowers contrasting with the
dark chocolate of the soil.
Col. Nimrod Bramham and his wife, Margaret, were
the parents of a large family; on all sides of their graves,
their descendants also sleep. They were good people,
followers of Him who gave His life a ransom for the
lost.
An obelisk of white marble stands nearly in the centre,
on which is engraved "Our Parents"; on one side of the
shaft, Wm. A. Bibb, and on the other side Sarah R.
Bibb. Mrs. Bibb was the oldest daughter of Col. Nimrod
and Margaret Bramham, and W. A. Bibb was her
husband.
Then there is the grave of Dr. Horace Bramham, cut
off in the springtime of life and usefulness.
A white tablet records the decease of John Simpson,
the son-in-law of Col. Bramham.
Here repose also, the remains of Dr. Wyatt W.
Hamner, another son-in-law of Col. Bramham, and here
are the remains of Edward J. Timberlake, the son-inlaw
of W. A. Bibb, and now his daughter, Mrs. Nellie
T. Smith finds a resting place among her kindred, who
have preceded her to the grave.
Other persons, the friends of Col. Bramham's family,
also rest here. The children of Wm. and Nancy Garland,
Mr. John and Martha Smithson. Immediately
next to the grave of Wm. and Sarah Bibb are three
large tombs, on the top of each rest marble tops; one
reads, Elizabeth Garland, born 1767, died Nov., 1840.
Erected by her children. On one side of her is her
grandson, Robert Slaughter, died July, 1840, aged 15
years 4 months. On the other side lies Elizabeth
Slaughter.
Mrs. Garland and Mrs. Smithson, previous to marriage,
were named Hamner. In another enclosure near
this cemetery lies the body of Mr. William J. Fife.
It is well to sit around the tombs of those whom we
once knew; it brings to remembrance the happiness enjoyed
in their company while living, and the good which
has resulted from their example of piety and trust in
God, and of the further necessity of being, like them,
prepared for death.
The fine brick mansion on the farm now occupied
[by] Rev. James Fife, was erected by Col. Bramham
about 1824.[92]
The place was formerly owned by Gen.
Garth and Col. Bramham, had been members of the
House of Delegates in the Virginia Legislature, from
Albemarle County.
This property was conveyed to Nimrod Bramham by Jesse
Winston Garth, April 11, 1818. Colonel Bramham built the present
house in the same year. Rawlings, Ante-Bellum Albemarle, p. 53.
April 8, 1874
Main Street as It Was in 1828 and as It Is at
This Time.—This street, when we first knew it, had
few houses, and only two or three business places on it,
now it has from one end to the other, fine houses and
substantial business stores; then it was rough, and in
winter season with mud enough to stall wagons passing
over it; now it is macadamized and is well graded; then
there were only patches of paved sidewalks, now there
are wide sidewalks laid with brick or slate its entire
length; the width of the street is 66 feet, which is, we
believe, the width of all the streets in the corporation
running east and west, and the cross streets running
north and south are 33 feet wide.
Opposite the eastern end of Main street stands a twostory
double wooden house,[93]
with a garden in front of it
of beautiful flowers, shrubs, &c., belonging to the estate
of the late Ira Garrett. This house appears to be swaying
through its centre; the southern half was brought up
from Milton, and attached to the other half, which has a
portico on the northern side. Dabney Carr, one of the
Jefferson, resided here.
The entrance to Main street from the vicinity of the
railroad depot is narrow and crooked; the original
boundary of the town extended only to a straight line
with the chimney of the small wooden house on the south
side of the street, now occupied by T. Collier; as you
come up from the depot, the brick house[94]
on the right
hand side, faces the centre of Main street; it had, when
built, but one room, and report says was once occupied
by William Wirt as a law office. Rev. F. W. Hatch
and Thomas Walker Maury taught school in this house.
Judge Watson and Henry Benson were pupils of the
former gentleman. Mr. Hatch was an Episcopal minister,
who settled in this town in 1819, and preached here
until 1831; he first resided in the house where Dr. Rogers[95]
now lives on High street; and in 1821, built the
house[96]
where our editor, A. R. Blakey, resides. On
that occasion Mr. Hatch received the following letter
from Mr. Jefferson, which deserves imitation from the
friends of the resident clergymen of this town:
"Dear Sir:—In the antient feudal times of our
good old forefathers, when the Seigneur married his
daughter or knighted his son, it was the usage for his vassals
to give him a year's rent extra, in the name of an aid.
that each of his flock should give him an aid of a year's
contribution. I enclose mine, as a tribute of justice,
which of itself, indeed, is nothing, but as an example, if
followed, may become something. In any event, be
pleased to accept it as an offering of duty, and a testimony
of my friendly attachment and high respect.
By the way, it is said that Rev. Mr. Hatch was one of
the most successful of gardeners, and one of his productions
was the rearing cucumbers seven feet in length.
This brick house [611 East Main] was afterwards the
property of Abram Zigler, the pump maker, who added
to its dimensions. Mr. Zigler was a good and honest
citizen, whom we well remember; he and his wife and
children have all passed away to the better land.
The town in 1761-2 was laid out in squares of one acre,
each square embracing two lots. Commencing on the
left hand [south] side of Main Street, we come to lots
No. 29, 30; the first house, brick, was built by Mrs. Tacy
Zigler, and is now the property of her grand-daughter,
Mrs. Maria Payne, and at present in the occupancy of
J. A. Peck; the next house, also brick, was built by Mrs.
Zigler, who sold it to Miss Ann Logan, for many years
a ladies' dress-maker; now it belongs to Dr. Hart, and
A. W. Tinsley occupies it as a residence. On lot 30,
(where once stood a blacksmith shop belonging to Opie
Norris,) a large, double three-story building[97]
was
years since. The Citizens National Bank is in one of the
basement rooms, and the other James Goodman occupies
as a grocery store. The Odd Fellows and the
Knights of Pythias orders have lodges in the third story,
and the second story is rented out for chambers.
On the opposite [north] side of the street, lots No.
15 and 16, on the corner of the first cross street [E. 5th],
stood a one-story wooden house[98]
where David Fowler
carried on the cabinet and furniture business. The door
of this house was solid and massive, and regularly laid
off into small squares with wrought iron nails, and was
made to last for centuries. This house was probably
among the first built when the town was established. A
man by the name of David Spradling, who walked upon
his hands and feet lived here for several years, and the
place was designated as the Cockroach Hotel. Where
this old house once stood, Addison Maupin erected the
brick house now occupied by Geo. T. Johnson as a store;
he also erected the large three-story stuccoed house
north of it, on Court [5th] street, now owned and occupied
by William T. Early. The Farmer's and Merchants
Bank, adjoining the store of Johnson on Main
Street, is also a recent brick structure. The Brick mansion
east of this was built by the late John B. Dodd, and
is now the property and residence of Luther Sneed.
Crossing to the other side of Court [5th] street are
lots 17 and 18,[99]
and the whole square was once the property
property (the Central Hotel having occupied the
Market St. end); the portions on Main street were divided
into six house lots and have been sold to various
parties; the three divisions of lot 17 are still vacant; and
on lot 18 are two small wooden structures, one of which
is occupied by W. J. Smith as a gunsmith store, and the
other by J. N. Pierce as a tin manufactory; adjoining
these is a large, double, three-story brick dwelling, occupied
by Payne and Thomasson, and by J. J. Gleason[100]
as grocery stores. The second story over Gleason is the
photograph gallery of Tyson and Perry, and the rooms
of Dr. J. W. Scribner, the dentist; the other chambers
are used for a private dwelling. The part of this property
on the corner of Union [E. 4th] street is now
owned by Rev. J. C. Long, and the other part by B.
Oberdorfer.
On the opposite [south] side of Main street are lots
31 and 32; on the corner of Court street is a large
wooden building,[101]
which, when we first recollect it, was
occupied as a carriage manufactory by Mr. John Tompkins,
at one time this property was occupied as a
store where liquors were sold by a rare genius, named
Samuel Toms, who had a sign, on which was painted a
heart; on the occasions of the militia officers' muster he
would treat the whole batallion; he was of a litigious
temperament, and almost always had some suit at law;
he was a noted character in all this region. In the time
of Nat Turner's rebellion[102] the town authorities of
occasion, Toms was on duty on horseback in the outskirts
of the town; he had a tin trumpet, a blast from
which was the signal of danger, on hearing of which a
gun was to be fired off at headquarters. Sometime
about midnight Toms heard a heavy rumbling, (which
proved to be a wagon rolling over a hard road,) and
thinking the enemy coming, rode, Gilpin-like to town,
giving loud blasts from his trumpet; opposite headquarters
were encamped several mountain wagoners
with their horses; on hearing Toms' signal the gun was
fired off, causing a stampede of the wagoners' horses,
which, with the screaming of the owners and the hurried
assembling of the citizens made quite an exciting and
amusing scene. One of the habitues of Toms' establishment
was a man by the name of Jesse Burroughs, whom
some of our older citizens may remember, as a jovial
kind fellow.
This property is now owned by James M. Smith, and
has been since the war remodeled; the lower half is occupied
by Geo. M. McIntire, druggist and by Mrs. Omohundro
as a millinery store. The upper stories are used
for private families.
The next structure is the fanciful wooden building
with circular headings, also the property of Mr. Smith,
and is the large dry goods, grocery and provision establishment
of Smith & Norman, who keep six or more
clerks employed day and night. Additions and alterations
have been made to the original house, and the store
is probably 100 feet in depth. It is to be hoped when
our bachelor friend Smith gets to be a rich man, (do men
ever get rich?) he will imitate his next door neighbors
of buildings to take the place of his inflammable tinderbox;
the deformities of which are hid by the handsome
stores on his west side.
The two large and commodious stores next to Smith
& Norman, built by S. M. Keller and J. W. Lipop occupy
the place of a one and half wooden house, once the
property, we believe, of the father of Jno. L. O'Neal.
These stores are 80 feet in depth, the first occupied by
A. Brunn & Co. for dry goods, and the other by Th. J.
Wertenbaker, merchant tailor and clothier. The next
store[103]
on the corner of Union [East 4th] street was
built by the late William S. Johnson and was sold to J.
W. Lipop in 1872, who remodeled it and has the store
room for his extensive watch and jewelry establishment.
The upper part and the chambers over the two adjoining
new stores are occupied by John M. Godwin as the
residence of his family.
The second cross street, (Union) the lots 19 and 20
[north side] had on it two small wooden buildings in
1828, the one on the corner, erected doubtless 60 years
previous, was a type or style of the other original houses;
it was old & dilapidated when we first knew it; this was
the one store which the Miltonians sarcastically alluded
to when comparing it with their great importing emporium,
which now is non est. When Col. Tarleton
made his raid here in 1781, he seized the goods found in
this store and had them burned on the street in front of
it, and the liquors were poured into the gutters. This
was done probably to prevent his troops from imbibing
printed in this house when Mr. Reinhart was its editor,
and his family resided in a part of the house. Mr.
Ebenezer Watts, the bookbinder once lived here, and
afterwards John B. Dodd had his cabinet shop here.
There is a daguerrean picture of this old building extant
as it existed in 1845, taken by Mr. Retzer.
The large three-story stuccoed building[104]
now occupying
this spot, was built for the Monticello Bank,
now the National Bank, and the Albemarle Insurance
Company. This building is about 40 feet in height.
There are two stores on the Main street, one of them extending
perhaps 125 feet on Union street, which is occupied
by F. M. Wills, druggist and pharmaceutist; the
other store by Spooner & Keller, hardware merchants.
The Bank occupies the front part of the second story,
the Albemarle Insurance Company and the Charlottesville
Milling Company have their offices in the other
rooms on this floor. The third story has a large hall extending
the whole length of this building, which is the
Friends of Temperance hall, and is also used by the
Mendelssohn Musical Society. The Young Men's
Christian Association has its library and lecture room on
this floor. The handsome stuccoed one-story building
north of this building on Union street is the Post office.[105]
On Main street, west of Spooner & Keller, is a twostory
stuccoed building with high pitched rooms, owned
by George & Watson, who have an extensive grocery
store in the lower part. This lot 19, was in old times the
emigrated West.
The next lot, 18 [20] was the property of Charles
Day, the tailor, who owned it up to 1831-'32. On it was
a one-and-half story wooden house, which was afterwards
elevated with a brick basement under it, and was
used as a dry goods and grocery store, first by Benjamin
Ficklin and then by B. & J. Mosby. This was taken
down and the stores now occupied by A. Hartnagle,
confectioner, and Pace & Marshall, grocers, was built by
the late E. J. Timberlake. On the corner of the third
cross (School) [East 3rd] street, Wm. B. Phillips built
the store and dwelling, now the property and occupied
by B. Oberdorfer,[106]
dry goods merchant, who has added
another story to its height.—When the late Wm. Keblinger
resided in this house, his son, Caddis, then a child
in his nurse's arms, fell from the third story window on
School street, and wonderful to say, without injuring
him. Now Cad. is a man with a growing family and has
the promise of long life.
On the opposite [south] side of Main, between Union
and School streets, lots No. 33 and 34, in 1828 were only
two buildings; one a wooden structure,[107]
occupied by
Mr. Schroff, tinner, and afterwards by the Chronicle
a quasi democratic sheet, owned, we believe, by Frederick
Isaacs, a son of David Isaacs, a Jew, and Nancy
West, a mulatto woman, who at one time owned several
town lots on Main street. Fred was well educated, and,
we think, went to school with the white boys; he loved to
frolic and drink; one night when he quit work he left a
lighted candle on his case, which set fire to it and to the
building, and the office was entirely destroyed.
At the other end of the square, lot No. 34, on the
corner of School [3rd S. E.] stood a modest brick
house[108]
owned by John B. Benson, the father of Henry
Benson, a merchant who conducted business, and with
his family resided there. Now this whole square has on
it substantial and elegant stores and dwellings. The
block of three stores, two-thirds of lot 33, is the property
of James Alexander, who purchased it from Th.
Grady's Executor, in 1844; there were on it then a small
two-story brick house and a small wood shop on the
corner of Union street, used for a paint shop, this he
street to the above house, and afterwards it was altered
and additions made in the rear as it now appears. The
Jeffersonian office was in the second story over the store
room now occupied by Mrs. I. T. Winston for millinery
and fancy goods. The middle store room is occupied by
M. B. Heller as a dry goods and clothing establishment.
The third store is in the occupancy of Balz & Hartman,
confectioners. On the other third of lot No. 33 is a brick
store and dwelling, and was built by Jane West, sister to
Fred Isaacs; she was a neat and tasty milliner, who received
the patronage of the ladies in all this vicinity; at
one time she was deranged and was sent to the Williamsburg
lunatic hospital, and returned cured of her insanity;
she owned several slaves, and by will gave freedom
to them at her death, but ere that time they became
free by President Lincoln's Proclamation; she owned
and lived in the house on Church street, now owned by
M. M. DuPre, till a few years past, and by will gave her
property to the heirs of her former slaves. The house
and store on Main street now belongs to Mrs. T. B.
Brockman; the store is occupied by Lew Wood, hardware
merchant, and the dwelling above by M. B. Heller.
Lot No. 34 has four large stores on it; in 1871 onehalf
of this lot, one-fourth acre, was sold for upwards of
$5,000 to J. H. Bibb and F. T. Andrew who have
erected stores extending 80 or 90 feet in depth. A. P.
Bibb & Co., merchants, occupy one for the sale of dry
goods, and F. T. Andrew the other for boots, shoes and
leather. In the rear of Bibb & Co., extending to Water
street, is a large warehouse now occupied by Geo. Johnson,
commission merchant.
Next to the store of F. T. Andrew is a large brick
house, with two stores; one is the dry goods store of Patterson
& Cochran, and the other the clothing emporium
of A. Myers, whose dwelling is over these stores. John
B. Benson was the owner of all of lot 34; it was afterwards
purchased by James Johnson, who sold it to
Christopher Hornsey, who enlarged the house, and for
thirty years conducted a large and lucrative mercantile
business here; in the latter part of the war he sold this
property to Edward Benner, jeweler, who made large
amounts by the purchase of cotton, and he further extended
the stores and improved the house, spending
thereon $5,000. He also bought the Monticello Hotel
and other property in town, and several years since became
a banker in Alexandria, Egypt, and now resides in
his native land, France.
On these once vacant lots, Nos. 425-429 E. Main Street, now
stand the Dixie Cigar & News Company, the Leather Shop, and
Robertson's Shoe Repairing Shop.
401 East Main Street. This site has been occupied by the
Gleason firm since 1873. About 1870 John J. Gleason of Gleason's
Gap, near Shipman, Nelson County, Virginia, entered business
on the present site of Brown's Gift Shop, the firm being then known
as Gleason and Bibb. Three years later Mr. Gleason bought control
and moved to the present site. Upon his sale to his son,
Henry Morris Gleason, in 1875, the firm became Gleason and
Bailey, and so continued until this partnership was dissolved in
1903. Mr. H. M. Gleason continued in business until 1925, and
was succeeded by his son, J. Emmett Gleason, thus making three
generations of this family in this company and upon this site.
Nat Turner's Insurrection took place in Southampton County,
Virginia, south of the James, in the summer of 1831. It was the
result of abolitionist propaganda. Turner, a Negro, killed his master,
mistress and their children with an axe, and gathered a band
which murdered sixty-one persons, almost all of whom were
women and children. Governor Floyd took prompt action, called
out the militia, and the ringleaders were captured. Turner and
some others were tried for murder and executed on the gallows,
some death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, and
some of the Negroes were pardoned. As a result of this upheaval,
many petitions were sent to the next Legislature, 1831-32. These
were referred to a select committee. In this, Thomas J. Randolph
of Edgehill, Albemarle County, son of Governor Thomas Mann
Randolph and grandson of Thomas Jefferson, moved Jefferson's
postnatal scheme of 1779 for the gradual abolition of slavery. After
three days' discussion the committee reported "that it is inexpedient
for the present to make any legislative enactment for the abolition
of slavery." This was contested in the House, and at length Archibald
Bryce of Goochland County proposed a compromise amendment
which was adopted: "Profoundly sensible of the great evils
arising from the colored population of the Commonwealth, induced
by humanity as well as policy," that there be an immediate effort
for the removal of the State's free Negroes, "and that a further
action for the removal of the slaves should await a more definite
development of public opinion." Tyler, Hist. of Va., Vol. II, pp.
463-64.
Mr. Oberdorfer settled in Charlottesville before the War
between the States. Though a native of Germany, he was southern
in sympathies and promptly volunteered, making an excellent record
as a soldier. His store (later that of his son, Philip B. Oberdorfer),
on the corner of 3rd Street, where Grant's now stands,
was for two generations one of the best-known in this section.
Now the site of the Peoples National Bank, 300 East Main
Street. The Peoples Bank was organized as a state bank in 1875;
President, A. R. Blakey; Directors: R. G. Crank, H. Clay Marchant,
C. H. Harman, Simon Leterman, L. T. Hanckel, A. J.
Farish, Jas. T. Durrette, Edw. Coles, Benj. R. Pace, J. Augustus
Michie, Jesse W. Jones, Charles Goodyear. It occupied for twenty
years the building on the corner of Market and Fourth Streets,
now the J. A. Burgess shop, the rental being $150 per annum.
Its second location, 1895, was on the corner of Main and Fourth,
now Timberlake's drug store, and in 1917 it moved to the present
site. In January, 1895, Judge John M. White became President,
continuing until his death in 1913. He was succeeded by Geo. R.
B. Michie, who served until shortly before his death in 1938.
Recently demolished. The site, still marked by one fine
magnolia, is now the East End Merchants' Association Parking
Lot. This house was bought about 1873 by Mr. S. M. Keller, and
remained the Keller home for two generations.
This old wooden house, which stood on the north side of East
High Street, between 3rd and 4th, was one of those brought to
Charlottesville from Milton, upon the decline of that town. It was
moved, and is now at 411 4th Street, N. E.
April 15, 1874
Main Street, 1828-1874.—In the paper of last week
we gave some account of Main street from its eastern
end to the third cross (School) [East 3rd] street. We
will now commence at the corner of that and Main
street, [north side], lots No. 21 and 22. There were
four small houses on this square in 1828; the first, now
F. Hartnagle's,[109]
was a small two-story brick store and
dwelling, and was formerly the mercantile house of Col.
Jno. R. Jones, who owned it, and he had also a store on
the Public Square. There was a platform in front of
the store, an ascent of several steps led to the store room;
store lowered about four feet. Mr. Martin, a merchant
who sold hats and shoes, and who married a daughter of
Joseph Harper, had this store till he emigrated to the
West. Thomas Grady afterwards kept for several
years a grocery store in it. Mr. G. was of a tall, lank
and ungainly appearance, his clothes fitting loosely
about his person; he was full of jokes, very free spoken
and often using, like many of the older residents, profane
language; he was, however, friendly, sociable and
kindly disposed. He had been a soldier in the war of
1812, and entertained a strong feeling of love and respect
for General Andrew Jackson, and a stronger,
more determined Democrat did not live in these parts.
At the other end of the lot, on Market Street, lived Dr.
James A. Leitch, then a young practitioner, full of
humor; he kept chained up a tame bear, that often got
loose and troubled the neighbors. Bears are very fond
of sugar; Bruin one day made a visit to the store of Mr.
Grady and took possession of the hogshead of sugar,
while the proprietor, afraid to meddle with him, stood
aghast hallooing at and berating the beast, but this did
not disturb the equanimity of Dr. Leitch's pet, and he
ate his fill of the saccharine sweets. Francis Mannoni,
confectioner, had this store room for twelve years. The
present owner, F. Hartnagle, has enlarged and improved
both the store and the house as it now stands; he
also built the brick store room adjoining, now occupied
by J. M. Daniel & Bro., booksellers, and French A.
Balthis, jeweler,[110] as well as the tenements north on
wooden house with modernized front; J. C. Kelley, tinner,
and W. R. Cogbill, barber, are the tenants. The
next house is an ancient one, old as the town, perhaps; it
has also a modern front; the porch formerly stood several
feet on the sidewalk; it belonged to James Leitch, a
very successful merchant, an Irishman, who was largely
patronized by Mr. Jefferson; he gave it to his sister,
Miss Rebecca Leitch, fifty years since, and she is still
the owner of it as well as the one occupied by Kelley and
Cogbill. In this house a Mr. Dawson taught school.
Mrs. Logan and daughters, milliners, once lived here,
and then Mr. Joseph Martin, bookbinder, who published
the Virginia Gazetteer [in 1835], a large octavo volume,
and other works. Mr. A. C. Brechin is now the
occupant and deals in fancy goods, picture-frames,
prints and wallpaper. The next, west, is a small
wooden tenement, belonging to T. W. Savage; Peter
Diggs, the barber, occupies it. The next building, a
two-and-a-half story dwelling, is the residence of Mr.
Savage; the store under it is occupied by L. W. Cox, the
gunsmith; it at one time was used for the Post-office,
when Wickliffe Hutchinson was post master. There
formerly stood on this place a small, one-and-a-half
story brick dwelling, where Lyman Peck, deputy sheriff
in 1828, and town Sergeant of the corporation, lived; his
horse, on one occasion, ran away with him in a buggy,
when he jumped out and broke his leg, which had to be
amputated, and he died under the operation. His
widow and children now reside in Mississippi. Mr. T.
Andrew Leitch, executor of James Dinsmore, who
owned it for several years. Mr. D. lived on the place
now owned by Peter Harman,[111] near the University.
Mr. James Dinsmore and his brother William were by
birth Irishmen, and were carpenters, the former, with
Mr. Nelson, was a contractor in building the University,
and acquired a handsome estate. He lost his life by
falling into a stream that flowed through the Orangedale
farm.[112] Mr. D. left the bulk of his estate to a
brother who lived in Louisiana. Mr. Wm. Dinsmore
died and was buried at Orangedale. The next building
for some distance up Church [East 2nd] street; it is
perhaps one of the old settlers, and we learn, was a
mercantile store previous to 1828. Mr. E. Watts, bookbinder,
had a small store here for many years; it is now
owned by Fred Hartnagle; Meade & Co. keep cigars
and tobacco for sale in this store room. Mr. Hartnagle,
in 1872, built the handsome brick building on Church
street, extending to the Presbyterian church.[114]
Crossing over to the opposite [south] side of Main
street are lots 35 and 36, extending from the third cross
(School) [3rd] street, to the fourth cross (Church)
[2nd] street. These lots were owned by Nancy West, a
free mulatto woman, and the wife (not lawfully) of
David Isaacs, a German Jew. On these two lots, at our
first recollection, was a two story wooden house with
wings east and west adjoining; David Isaacs did business
here, and Nancy West sold cakes, &c. One of the
sons of the above couple, Tucker Isaacs, was a painter,
and was a good citizen and much respected; he is now a
resident of Chillicothe, Ohio, and a man of large property.
His brother Frederick was a printer, and both
were educated with the whites in this town. Fred. had a
natural talent for drawing, and could imitate with accuracy
every signature in the Declaration of Independence,
even to the palsied, shaking one of Steph.
Hopkins, of R. Island. On these lots there are now
eight large and commodious brick stores and dwellings.
by Tucker Isaacs, and was sold to F. Potentini, Corsican,
who had a confectionery in the old wooden house
for several years; he removed to Washington city, and
during the late war accumulated a large fortune and returned
to France with $100,000. T. and S. M. Keller
had a confectionery here. James Lobban afterwards
purchased this house, and sold it to Mrs. Mary Keblinger;
it is now the property of her children, and the
store is occupied by Mrs. Bachrach, milliner; the next
two buildings were erected by James Lobban, one store
is occupied by J. Bachrach, dry goods merchants, and
the other by Henry Benson, auctioneer. The next store
room is the hardware establishment of Lobban & Sinclair,
and the upper part is the residence of Mr. Lobban.
The house was built by Tucker Isaacs. From this store
to Church [East 2nd] street, Rev. James Fife purchased,
who built the store occupied by A. B. Heller,
dry goods and clothing merchant; G. M. McIntire,
druggist and apothecary, occupied the store for many
years. The next two stores are stuccoed work; the land
was sold by Mr. Fife to John Wood, Jr. and John T.
Antrim, who erected them. Ed. M. Antrim occupies
one for dry goods and S. Bass, clothier, the other. The
next building west,[116] on the corner of Church street, is a
large three story house, built by Rev. J. Fife; the store
![illustration](https://iiif.lib.virginia.edu/iiif/uva-lib:178615/full/!1600,1600/0/default.jpg")
Main Street looking East from foot of Vinegar Hill, about 1880
house, the upper story Dr. E. S. H. Wise has for a
boarding house. The one story L to the old house which
stood on this place, Dr. J. Staige Davis had for his office
previous to his becoming professor at the University; it
was removed down the lot on Church street and is at
present occupied by Rev. C. R. Ross as the Depository
of the Albemarle Colportage and Sunday School Society,
where bibles, tracts and religious publications are
sold. A. H. Cleveland is now the owner of this property.
The house below the Depository is occupied by
C. H. Wingfield, carriage maker, and was the property
and residence of Jane West, and not as we stated last
week, the place south of it owned by M. M. DuPre. We
also stated that the house on the corner of Main and
Court streets was built by John Mannoni fifteen years
since—it was built in 1866.
We next come to lots Nos. 37 and 38 [on south side],
once the property of David Isaacs. It was known as the
old barracks; by some it is said the name was derived
from the fact that Tarleton quartered his troops here in
1781, and others say Gen. Bankhead[117]
had his headquarters
here in the war of 1812, from which it took its
name, which we believe to be the true version. As we
first recollect it in 1828, there were only two wooden
buildings on these lots, the one now standing and owned
stood a few feet back, where the late J. P. Halbach's
house stands.
The house on the corner of Church [East 2nd] street
is one of the original houses of the place, but the solid
timbers are good for a century or more yet. A Mr.
Grant, in 1828-29 had a drygoods store here. Bragg &
Kelly, Joseph Merrell and Joseph Bishop also occupied
it later, then Jesse W. Jones in 1842 purchased it from
David Isaacs, and afterwards sold it to his brother, Ro.
S. Jones, who is the present owner. He has been altering,
adding and building to it on every side, and changing
it till it has become almost a light house in the sky.
For several years Mr. Retzer had a photograph gallery
there, then Jones himself carried on the same business
and afterwards Tyson & Perry[118]
had it for the same
business. George & Co. occupy the corner store for the
drug and apothecary business; J. Tyler Jackson sells
confectioneries and has an insurance agency in the next
store, and in the next room Charles Thompson has a
news agency and a tobacco and cigar store. The large
three-story brick building, next to Thompson, was built
by R. S. Jones in 1843, in the second story of which Rev.
Stephen H. Mirick, a Baptist minister, once had a female
seminary. Sterling & Wood occupy one of the
stores for Jewelry, watches, etc., and in the other E.
Oppenheim has a liquor establishment.
On lot No. 36, Peter U. Ware, tinner, did business
here forty odd years ago; he was robbed and murdered
by two negro men, who followed him from Charlottesville
in this county; they had seen him obtain money which
they thought was a large amount, but it was only a dollar
or two. The negroes were apprehended, tried, convicted
and hung. Mr. Ware was a good man, and highly
respected, his wife, the daughter of the late Claudius
Mayo, still lives in this county; he was a member of the
Episcopal church in this town.
The next store to Oppenheim was built by John J.
Pace, where he once carried on mercantile business, and
afterwards in the firm of Pace & Keblinger; Mrs. N. A.
Terrell now occupies the store for the millinery business.
The next store is the place where for years J. P. Halbach
had a merchant tailoring establishment, and of late
years a news depot; he built all three of the stores on this
lot, to the corner of Green [First] street; next to his
place of business Edward Benner, jeweller, did business
for several years, and Bear & Conrad also conducted the
jewelry business here; recently it was occupied by Jesse
W. Jones jr. as a hardware and fancy store. The next
store, corner of Green, the 6th cross street, is the place of
business of M. Kaufman, grocer.[120]
We again cross over to the northern side of Main
street, on lots 23 and 24; on these two lots there was
only one house erected till of late years, and that house is
now standing,[121]
and was, perhaps, built in the town's
first days, ere the Revolution; we have been told that it
Col. Taliaferro was sheriff of the county, and owned the
lots below on the same side of the street, and also the
farm belonging to John Fry, near town, on the old
Lynchburg road. The house afterwards was the property
of Col. Bell, also of the revolutionary army, which
had a store in it, and he built an addition on the western
end of the house. This house is now as it was when first
built, with its thick, heavy doors, and all the timbers are
in a good state of preservation; the shingles on the house,
after serving for 60 years were taken off, turned over
and put on again; it is one and a half stories high, and,
like the original buildings, the first floor is elevated several
feet above the ground. Jesse Scott, the celebrated
fiddler—half Indian, half white—married the daughter
of Col. Bell and became the owner of the house and
the acre of land attached; his sons, Robert, aged 71, and
James, aged 63, are now the owners of the house; both
of them play the fiddle every year at one of the watering
places in Virginia, and at weddings and parties elsewhere.
The Scotts, father and sons, have always stood
well in this place, and were respected by every one. On
Main street, next to this old house, is a small wooden
building in which James Ferguson, the barber and hairdresser,
carries on his business; the next is a one-story
brick store, occupied by Robertson & Dodd, grocers; the
next is a two-story brick building occupied by D. H.
Stern,[122] boot, shoe and leather dealer; adjoining this is a
F. D. Brockman,[123] merchant tailor, has been doing business
for near 40 years, and C. C. Ashford, sign painter,
has rooms above the store. The next house is a large
double brick dwelling;[124] in one of the stores A. Moser,
boot and shoe maker, occupies, and C. H. Wingfield,
confectioner, the other. John A. Marchant built this
it. In the rear there was a lager beer manufactory, but
at this time it is occupied [by] B. F. Hawkins, painter
and glazier. At the other end of this lot, on Market
street, is the brick mansion of Wm. A. Watson,[125] and
adjoining it the residence of Capt. C. C. Wertenbaker.[126]
This firm soon after became Balthis and Keller, jewelers and
engravers, and later the present Keller and George, which stands
across the street from its early site.
Now 843 West Main Street, the home of Judge Archibald
Douglas Dabney. This property was bought in 1818 by James
Dinsmore from Henry W. Alberty, alias Henry Chiles (Albemarle
County Deed Book 21, p. 222). It is not certain if the house was
then standing or if Dinsmore built it, but he was residing there at
the time of his death, 1830 (ibid., Book 29, p. 87). The lot then
comprised 7½ acres. Following litigation, it was deeded to William
Wertenbaker in 1838 by Andrew Leitch, executor for the Dinsmore
estate (ibid., Book 36, p. 319). Mr. Wertenbaker sold in
1842 to Mrs. Nancy Garland (ibid., Book 40, p. 14), and she in
1848 to Richard Duke, who retained it only a few months, selling
June 10, 1848, to John Schaaf (ibid., Book 45, p. 535). In 1866
Peter Harman bought from Schaaf (ibid., Book 61, p. 438), and it
remains the home of a descendant of this family. It cannot now
be determined who planted the long box walk, there being among
the various descendants varying legends.
This farm, comprising 185 acres, was sold in 1832 by John
Dinsmore, Sr., heir of James Dinsmore, (ibid., Book 30, p. 128),
the purchaser being Joseph Watson, an Irish immigrant who made
it his home for many years. Later, Orange Dale was long the
home of Mr. James Payne. The house is now in the city limits, being
the residence of Morris S. Clark, 7½ Street, S. W. The name
indicates the political sympathies of James Dinsmore.
That is, extending to the former Presbyterian Church, which
stood on the east side of 2nd Street.
Now the site of M. Kaufman's Sons, 222 East Main Street.
This firm, founded by Mr. M. Kaufman, Sr., in 1870, has occupied
its present location since about 1885.
200 East Main Street, now the site of the Citizens Bank and
Trust Company. A. C. Brechin for many years conducted a book
store here.
Major (Adj. Gen., August 15, 1813) James Bankhead of the
7th Infantry, disbanded June 15, 1815. He was a West Pointer
and a first cousin of Charles L. Bankhead of "Carlton." Thomas
H. S. Hamersly Complete Regular Army Register of the United
States for One Hundred Years (1779-1879) . . . (Washington,
D. C., 1880), pp. 97, 110.
Now the site of the Charlottesville National Bank Building,
123 East Main Street. This was for years the site of the City Post
Office.
This shop was later located at 306 East Main Street, now
the site of the J. N. Waddell Shoe Co. Mr. Stern's home was on
the corner of First and Market Streets, afterwards the residence
of his father-in-law, S. Leterman. Later, it became the Old
Ladies' Home, and now is the Hill & Irving Funeral Home.
Now the site of the Harris-Norge Sales Co., 105 East Main
Street. The late well-known colored barber, John West, used to
tell this anecdote: As a partly grown boy he was standing, in
March, 1865, in front of Brockman's shop when two strangers
on fine horses rode up, gave him their reins and went inside. A
little later Mr. Ad. Keblinger came running down Fourth Street,
calling had anyone seen Colonel Mosby and Captain Hardy (name
not certain). The Yankees were entering Charlottesville by Park
Street and these soldiers must be warned. West ran into the shop
calling them. Mosby tossed him a silver dollar as they dashed out
and, disregarding Keblinger's warning shout to take another way,
turned north into Fifth Street on a dead run. (As the main body of
Union troops was expected from the west, this was a natural blunder.)
West ran at full speed up a side street, saw that the Yankees
had already poured into Fifth, and reached High Street in
time to see the two Confederates "clear High Street at one jump
with mud flying to heaven" and escape down Park Street. That
they could thus escape, counterwise to the foe, may possibly be explained
by the soldiers having already broken ranks for the usual
looting. Forty years later when Colonel Mosby was here on a
visit, West showed him the identical dollar and asked if he recalled
the incident. Mosby replied that he had some such recollection,
but added that "he was seeing so many Yankees about that time,
his memories were a bit confused."
No. 100 East Market Street, now the Annex of the Charlottesville
Presbyterian Church. This was long the home of Mr.
W. C. Payne.
April 29, 1874
Main Street.—In the paper of the 15th inst. we
gave account of Main street from School [East 3rd]
to Green [First] streets; we will in this number begin
at the corner of Green street on the south-side of Main
street, with lots 37 and 38 [actually lots 39 and 40].
The large brick dwelling and store[127]
now occupied by
James Perley for a furniture wareroom, was for many
years, one of the principal dry goods stores in the place.
Mr. Isaac Raphael, we have been informed, built it, and
carried on a large business up to 1836, when he removed
to Louisville, Ky. He was a Hebrew, and his wife was
a lady of very refined taste and culture, and one of the
best performers on the piano and organ in this part of
the State. Her brother, Nathaniel Wolfe, practised
law here, afterwards became one of the most distinguished
Mr. Raphael, the store was occupied by the late Th. J.
Valentine and others. The next store was built by J. J.
Fry, of Richmond, and was at first occupied by the firm
of Abell, Bibb & Fry, for dry goods, and afterwards by
Jno. H. Bibb. The next house was built and occupied
by the late Elijah Dunkum, for dry goods, and at one
time, the Monticello Bank occupied it. All of the above
stores are brick and have family residences over them.
The next house is brick for the basement, and the upper
part is wood. It formerly had a small platform in front,
without the basement. Mr. Marshall, a native of Connecticut,
a boot and shoe maker was its occupant; in
after years Marshall & Bailey (late Th. R. B.), carried
on the same business here, and then Mr. Bailey himself.
The late John B. Dodd, purchased the property and to
the time of his death carried on the business of cabinet
making. James Perley now occupies the house for his
family residence, and manufactures and repairs furniture
in the lower part. The next two buildings were
here in 1828, the one of wood has been elevated by having
a brick basement beneath it, and adjoins the two
story brick house[128] and store on the corner of Hill [West
2nd] street. The brick store in the lower story was once
used for a blacksmith shop, and afterwards by William
Summerson for a carpenter shop. Mr. S. still resides
among us, verging on to his 90th year. E. M. Wolfe,
afterwards had the store for many years and sold groceries
and dry goods. It is now a butcher's stall. This
the town. Mr. I. Raphael, previous to the erection of his
store on the corner of Green [First] street kept a dry
goods store here. Crossing Main St. [to north side], the
lots 25 and 26, were owned by Nancy West, and a brick
store and house, part of the property now owned by J.
Bachrach, and a small blacksmith shop, were the only
buildings standing upon them when we first knew the
town. A dry goods store was kept in the brick building
by Grinstead & Binford, and afterwards a furniture
warehouse was kept here by John B. Dodd, and also by
Joseph Bishop, and while occupied by the latter, a fire
destroyed the wood work, leaving the walls standing.
The house and store have been remodelled. Solomon[129]
Leterman owns and occupies one of the stores for dry
goods, and his son the other for clothing, boots, shoes,
&c. the next large three story building with its deep store
room was built by the late Sophia Leschot, who was a
partner with B. C. Flannagan and A. P. Abell, under
did a very great and lucrative business in the dry goods
and grocery line. The room west of this was once used by
the Monticello Bank. The Brick store[130] and house on the
corner of Hill [West 2nd] street, now occupied by Theo.
Hoppe, Grocer, were built by Raphe Dudley, who sold
to William Tompkins, and he sold to John C. Patterson,
who built the store and house adjoining occupying the
house for his residence, and the store for the sale of Dry
Goods. These stores and houses are now the property
of Mrs. Thompson Brown. The corner store on Hill
street is at present a grocery store and occupied by Theo.
Hoppe. It was on this lot Joshua Grady had, till after
1836, a blacksmith shop. On the lot, which was low, were
quite a number of springs, that always kept the place wet
and sluggish. On the upper end of the lot from Leterman's
store and house, the Disciples' church, which separated
from the Baptist, was built in 1836. Crossing Hill
[W. 2nd] street [still on north side] the lots No. 27 and
28, were in earlier days almost a bog and swamp. There
was a small brick house on the corner, and west of it a
double one-and-half wooden tenement. They were the
property of Mathew Casey, an Irishman, whose family
afterwards removed to St. Louis, Missouri; one of the
sons of Casey carried on the cabinet making business,
and was a skillful and neat workman. The large three
story house and drug store of C. P. Benson[131] occupies
the place of Casey's one-story brick house. C. T. Paterson,
on the drug business and was also telegraph operator;
his lady, Mrs. Lizzie Paterson, was an accomplished
singer, and taught vocal and instrumental music. The
next house, kept as a bakery by Voight, with modern
front, is the old Casey building. The next house, brick,
is a modern structure, and occupied by W. B. Franks,
boot and shoemaker. The next house and store is occupied
by J. W. B. McAllister, grocer, was built by J.
and W. Perry, who were butchers, and afterwards kept
here a grocery store; the adjacent buildings are all of
recent date, and are occupied by small dealers. This lot
was the western boundary of the town as laid off
in 1761-'62.
Crossing over Main street, on the corner of Hill
[West 2nd] street, once stood a small wooden tenement,
in which David Wolfe had a small grocery store, where
now is the brick store and house occupied for the office
of the gas company, and T. J. Williams gas fitter[132]
and
repairer. The other brick building erected on these lots
was built by the father of the late Wm. B. Thomas, and
afterwards owned by John Lee, the butcher. Some
thirty years ago it was set on fire, and the wooden work
destroyed. Julius Munday for several years carried on
the cabinet making business in this house. The two
wooden buildings next were put up since 1865, one of
them R. L. Dobbins occupies for shoe making, and the
other by J. Smith, grocer. The next two wooden tenements
were built in 1865, and the next one-and-halfstory
wooden building was owned by the late Mrs.
town ended at the upper end of these lots. Opposite the
Methodist church,[133] on Hill street, Geo. W. Sinclair has
recently erected a brick dwelling[134] and is also constructing
a wooden dwelling. Opposite the Methodist church,
on the corner of Water and Hill streets, the two story
brick building, painted white was built by James M.
Word for the late Mrs. Nancy Price, now occupied by
Mrs. Purvis.[135] The brick residence[136] south of it, on the
M. Word, and is now owned by Jesse W. Jones. The
fine and stately mansion[137] on South street at the head of
Hill street was built by James M. Word, who resided
in it for several years, now it is the property of T. J.
Wertenbaker.
Random Row[138]
commences at the end of the old town
boundary, and once was a part of the farm of Joseph
Bishop, who built the brick house now occupied by J. J.
Utz, which house is said to be the oldest brick structure
in the town; there were in 1828 several fine brick edifices
in this row or street, and are standing at this day. This
portion of our town was not added to the corporation till
after 1835. The house on the south-side of this, (which
is a continuation of Main street to the University), is
the property of C. L. Fowler, and was built by Charles
Spencer, afterwards occupied by a Mr. Patton; in 1836
Henry Benson had a store in this house. Charles Spencer
also built the house on the street known since as
the Farmer's Hotel, which his widow occupied as a house
of private entertainment. Mr. Spencer, in his lifetime
kept a coach or carriage for hire, and had one of his
slaves to manage the business for him; Mr. Spencer
suspecting that his servant did not make full and fair returns
of receipts concluded to watch him; on one occasion
concealing himself in the stable where the negro
fellow put up his horses, he saw him take out the money
him, he began to divide it as follows: One quarter
for master, one quarter for me, and continued till all the
quarters but one were assigned to their respective piles.
The odd quarter of a dollar he decided the ownership by
the following method: Throwing it up, and saying,
"head for master, tail for me;" it turned up head, but the
negro said that wasn't a fair throw, so again the quarter
went up, head for master, tail for me, again head won,
but the "nig" decided that throw to be unfair, and again
it went up head for master, tail for me, this time tail
won, and the quarter went into the negro's pile.
This building, with changed front, is now the Spotless Company,
100 West Main Street. The chairs on the sidewalk in front
of Perley's were for long the daily gathering place of some of the
older men of the town, who here re-fought the campaigns of the
War between the States.
This was long kept by Mr. Jim Gleason. The brick house
may be located in the illustration of early Main Street, p. 80.
This first name should be Simon. Mr. Leterman entered business
in Charlottesville about 1850, at this site, 101 West Main Street,
from which his store was never moved. Later, he associated his
sons with him. In 1905, following Mr. Leterman's death in 1904,
the firm became the Leterman Company's Department Store and
continued for about a decade. Mrs. S. Leterman was largely associated
with the earlier charities of the town. With Mrs. Charles
S. Venable, Miss H. Hay Watson, and others she was one of
the founders of the Ladies Aid Society of Charlottesville, and one
of its most active officers. It was said of her that her interests
knew no difference of race, creed, or color, and in her old age she
was generally called Mother Leterman by the poor of the town.
With Mrs. Judge John L. Cochran, Mrs. J. Tyler Jackson, and
Mrs. T. Wood she was one of the founders of the local White Ribbon
Temperance Society.
The first Methodist Church of Charlottesville has occupied
three buildings. The earliest, built 1834-35, was situated on a
half-acre lot bounded by Water, First, and South Streets. The
second, begun in 1859, but due to war conditions not completed
until 1866-67, is the one mentioned in the text. It was situated
on a lot a block to the west, on the corner of West 2nd and Water
Streets. Upon the erection of the third building on East Jefferson
Street in 1924, the second building was converted to commercial
use, and has recently been razed.
No longer standing. The late Mrs. Emma W. Williams, a
daughter of Mr. Jones, told that as a child of ten she witnessed the
searching of this house by a northern soldier. Her mother was
wearing beneath her skirts two bags containing silver, and she,
child-like, wore in imitation two small ones holding salt-cellars
and their spoons. This concealment was successful. The searcher
was rough and abusive, threatened Mr. Jones's life, and caused
considerable alarm until the arrival of another Union soldier who
ordered him from the premises and remained in the home as protector.
He advised Mr. Jones not to allow his daughters upon
the streets next day, even to attend church. When the troops
left, two maids belonging to this household were carried off, each
behind a soldier's saddle. By the passage of cannon and other
heavy transport the mud of Main Street was churned to the depth
of the wagon-hubs, so that it was soon dragged into holes and
high ridges which remained for many days.
May 6, 1874
Random Row, North Side.—At the foot of Random
Row now West Main street, when we first recollect
it, stood two small wooden buildings, the property of
Joseph Bishop's heirs. It was on this lot that Gen. Parsons,
of the Confederate army was born. Between the
years 1830 and 1834, the present brick store and dwellings,[139]
with the exception of the one east, which was
added to the others since Wm. Cox purchased the property,
were erected by John D. Craven and Henry B.
in the
rear, where for many years the late James Bishop conducted
the same business. The first store room, now occupied
by A. D. Cox, grocer, was for several years occupied
by Thos. Draffin, who did a large trading business
in country produce brought from west of the Blue
Ridge by mountain wagons, six horse teams; the animals
were often decorated with ribbons, and having bells
around their necks or under the bellies. We often saw
the premises around the store crowded with these mountain
wagons. This thriving trade after a few years
came to an end, by the failure of Draffin & Co. The
next store, now occupied by Samuel Comer, for groceries,
and dry goods, was from October 1835 to September
1844, the place where the Jeffersonian was published,
established October 1835, by the present Local,
and his family residence was over the office. In 1844 he
built the house on the corner of Union [4th] and Main
streets, where the Jeffersonian office continued till sold
to its present proprietors in April, 1873, when it was removed
to its present location on Union street, opposite
the Post Office. The next house west to the property of
William Cox, is a brick dwelling, occupied by J. A.
Frazier,[141] tailor, and the next brick structure is occupied
story are the finished vehicles, and the upper story is
used for their manufacture. This building was erected
by John L'Tellier. Stephen R. Sullivan and John
L'Tellier, carriage makers, carried on business on this
lot for many years, but their workshops were on the
west side of the lot, in range with the present blacksmith
shop of Wingfield & Utz. The two-story brick dwelling
house[143] with portico in the centre, is said to be the first
brick building erected in the town, and was built by William
Dunkum for Joseph Bishop, who owned all the
land adjacent, as his farm. As Mr. Dunkum is said to
have built the Wayt house, and the one occupied by
Lewellen Wood on the Public Square, perhaps these
houses were put up about the same time, either at the
end of the last or early in this century. John L'Tellier,
after the dissolution of the firm of Sullivan & L'Tellier,
carried on business by himself for several years. He had
three sons in the Confederate army, William, a lieutenant
in the 19th Va. Reg't, was killed at Gettysburg;
Joseph, of the 49th Va. Reg't, was mortally wounded
near Petersburg, at the close of the war, and died in that
city after the surrender; Capt. John H. was also very
and is now, a very successful teacher of languages and
mathematics, and resides in Texas. On the Cox lot adjoining,
three persons, who were born there, a general, a
captain, and a lieutenant, also lost their lives in the Confederate
army. The next brick store and house, and the
adjoining one, as well as the one on the opposite side of
the street, were erected by George Toole,[144] who carried
on the business of tailoring on the Public Square many
years, and afterwards, in connection with his nephew,
Jeremiah Toole, now of Petersburg, did a grocery business
in the house J. B. Andrews, grocer, now occupies.
Mr. Toole in the later years did business in his dwelling,
on the south side of the street. Jerry Toole was a
printer, and acquired the business in the old Advocate
office in this town; he was a great reader and well versed
in European history, and especially of Ireland, his native
land. We have often listened by the hour to hear
him talk about the Irish patriots, Thomas Addis Emmett
and Daniel O'Connell. Another nephew of
George Toole, brought up & educated by him, who was
a very intelligent man, became an artist of considerable
merit; some of his portraits are excellent likenesses and
finished with a master hand. He was a distinguished
Mason, and after his death a handsome marble obelisk
was erected by our citizens over his remains, commemorating
his virtues. The house next to Andrews' store,
for many years was the residence of the family of
George Toole, and for many years the late Mrs. C. Y.
Benson resided there. The wooden tenement west, has
woman, Susan Kennedy, who has sold ginger horse
cakes from that time to this. The brick building now occupied
and owned by F. D. Brockman,[145] was built by
John Neilson, an Irishman, who with Wm. Dinsmore,
were contractors in the erection of the University. Mr.
Neilson resided till his death in this house. It was, when
we first knew it, occupied by Fleming Boyd, of the
firm of Fleming & John Boyd, who did business in the
store on the corner of Court and Market streets,[146] recently
remodelled by John McKennie. Fleming Boyd
afterwards occupied the "Midway" at the head of Random
Row for a public hotel; his wife died there; she is
interred in the old cemetery, and an iron railing surrounds
the tomb, and marble tablet. Mr. Boyd soon
after removed to the West. The next house was built
by Clement P. M'Kennie for his residence; he was at
first editor and proprietor of the Central Gazette [18201827]
the predecessor of the Virginia Advocate, edited
by the late Geo. [omission] Th. W. Gilmer, Prof. J. A.
G. Davis, Nicholas P. Twist [Trist] and Dr. Frank
Carr. Mr. M'Kennie afterwards opened a bookstore
near the University, east of the present University
Bookstore, now owned by his son, Dr. Marcellus
M'Kennie. The residence of Mr. M'Kennie was the
one now occupied by Dr. M'Kennie. The widow of C.
P. M'Kennie is still living, who has always been fond of
rearing and cultivating beautiful flowers, shrubs and
exotic plants, and having fine gardens; she is a noble
Long may she live and enjoy health and the association
of her descendants and friends. The M'Kennie house[147]
on Random Row is now the property of J. M. Ferguson,
the baker, who erected an addition on the east end
of it, which Mr. M. Goldsmith occupied for the sale of
dry goods. The wood tenement at the west end of the
house is the grocery and dry goods store of G. W. Clark.
The next house, brick, was built by William Garner,
and since 1845 has been occupied by George Moose, for
the sale of groceries and liquors. The adjoining building,
now occupied by George Booth & Bro., boot and
shoe makers, was built by Allen Hawkins for Dr. Rice
G. Bailey, who kept the Farmers' Hotel[148]
there for several
also kept a hotel in it, and had a livery stable. F. M.
Paoli during the war kept this as a public house. It is
house, which house was erected ere 1828, and was occupied
as a residence by Albert Chewning, and not as
we stated last week, the one Booth & Co. occupy. It
was built, we learn, for Mrs. Burnley. The next stores,
were, we believe, built since the war by Wesley Cox &
Bro., one is occupied by N. B. Lillienfeld for the sale of
groceries, &c. The bar room adjoining is the place of
business of John Houchens. An alley way, about eight
feet wide, leading to Commerce street, north, occurs
here.
Here properly ends Random Row, called by many
"Vinegar Hill." The first name was probably obtained
from the random way the houses were put up, without
reference to the old town lines; at the head of the hill
the street is much narrower than at its foot. Mr. J.
Frank Fry tells us that the name "Vinegar Hill" was
given to it on account of the illicit trade carried on in the
sale of distilled liquors[149]
by persons doing business as
grocers; they labelled the casks containing spirits,
"Vinegar." We have often heard this street called purgatory,
as it was a very bad road to travel, rough, rocky
and steep; accidents to carriages and vehicles often occurring.
Since the street became a part of the town, the
authorities have graded and macadamised it, and now it
is in as good condition as the rest of our streets.
The small wooden tenement west of the alley is occupied
for a grocery by A. Weil, and here begins University
for agricultural implements, are nine or ten
houses, the most of them have been put up since 1828.
The stuccoed building was, we are informed, put up in
part, by a Mr. Huntington, a merchant who came from
Connecticut, and who kept a dry goods store where R.
L. Meade & Co. now have a cigar and tobacco store, on
the corner of Church and Main streets. This stuccoed
house, William Garland once kept as a grocery and
liquor store. He is said to have opened the street at the
eastern end of the house to the county road, north of the
present gas house. Mr. Garland removed to Mississippi,
and all his family, except Dr. William P. Garland, of
Jackson, Mississippi, are dead. Lewis Sowell, carriage
maker, in later years owned this house, and resided here
till his death, a year ago. One of his sons, Benajah, and
Wm. J. Duke, teacher in the public schools in this town,
reside here at this time. The handsome brick residence
owned and occupied by John C. Wood,[150] with the beautiful
flower garden around it, was, we learn, built by a
Presbyterian clergyman, when the University was being
erected, by the name of Paxton, who married a daughter
of Major Garland Carr. This gentleman, in after
years, travelled in the East, and published a work on
Palestine. On his return he settled and became pastor
of a Presbyterian church in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and
afterwards resided in the State of Indiana.
In our next article we shall have to commence at
"Mudwall" and return to the foot of Random Row.
These old buildings no longer stand. Upon the eastern end,
facing Preston Avenue, was a balcony from which members of
the Cox connection in 1824 waved to Lafayette upon the occasion
of his historic visit. The dwelling of Dr. William Cox was one of
those looted by Union troops. Mrs. Cox was shut in her room
and the house sacked, the soldiers being followed by some of the
rabble of the town. After the departure of the troops, Dr. Cox
visited certain suspected families and recovered some of his property.
(Authority: Mrs. E. H. McPherson.)
In digging the foundations of the Super Market, 216 West
Market Street, old tanning vats in good condition were unearthed
which evidently were adjuncts of this tannery. James Monroe
Bishop was nephew to the Joseph Bishop whose farm furnished
the site for this section of the town. (Authority: Mrs. E. H. McPherson.)
This old building still stands and is now occupied by the
Washington Post, 239 West Main Street.
Where Witkins Furniture Store, No. 241 West Main Street,
now stands, was an opening which led into a courtyard where these
buildings stood.
This white-pillared old farmhouse, which stood back in the
courtyard, has been razed. Joseph Bishop purchased the farm in
1803 and died in 1825. His wife was Jane, a daughter of Edmund
Terrell, and thus a descendant of Henry Willis, founder of
Fredericksburg, and his wife, who was a sister of General Washington's
father. Woods, Albemarle County, p. 144.
About No. 275. This was the birthplace of Charlie Ferguson,
the great National League pitcher. Of this famous athlete,
Leo Riordan, Sports Editor of the Philadelphia Evening Public
Ledger, furnishes the following information. We quote: "On Feb.
8, 1925, the late Bill Shettsline, veteran Phillies official, wrote:
`Ferguson was the greatest ball player who ever lived. That goes,
too, despite Ty Cobb. I'll tell you why. Ferguson could play
every position on the team. One year he started to pitch for us
and wound up on second, playing as well as Ed Collins. As an
outfielder he ranked with the very best. No better base runner
ever lived. To top his wonderful performances he led our league
in hitting one year.' " The Editor of The Sporting News, St.
Louis, states: "Charlie Ferguson had a brief but brilliant career.
He died in April, 1888, after being a member of the Philadelphia
Nationals since 1883. He attended the University of Virginia in
Richmond [sic] and was recognized as one of the greatest of allround
players, being able to play the infield, outfield and catch.
He was also the first pitcher to twirl a double header." Local tradition
holds that he was the first exponent of the curved ball.
About the site of the Midway Drug Company, 297 West
Main Street. There was a rival tavern or hotel across where the
City Fire Department now stands on Water Street, and fracases
frequently arose between the two. Under the stimulus of sufficient
conviviality, one party would sally forth to "clean out" the
other. The old Irish fighting song of "Vinegar Hill" would be
raised and adherents would flock to both standards. Where the
Lewis and Clark monument now is situated was an open space
with town pump and trough which furnished the battle ground,
the vanquished being finally ducked in the trough and rolled in the
mud. There was a saying that the O'Tooles, the O'Tracys and
the O'Donovans ruled Vinegar Hill.
Where Saxton's Cleaning and Dye Works now stand, adjoining
the Fire Department, was a one-story cottage with a hogshead
spring and a lofty willow tree. The owner was a Mrs. Thompson,
who is said to have been the widow of an English officer, one
of the Barracks prisoners. At this time Water Street did not connect
with Main, but ended at 2nd Street, W. The grounds of
Mrs. Thompson thus extended to Vinegar Hill and the stream
from her spring flowed down in the rear of Vinegar Hill's southside
houses, being augmented by the overflow from several backyard
pumps. Coming forward under what is now Carter's Music
Store, 218 West Main, it was joined by the water from a large
pump where the west wall of Sears, Roebuck and Company now
stands. It then crossed Main Street as an open branch and ran
down Barracks Road (now Preston Avenue) to flow into Wills's
Ice Pond, which about covered the block upon which the Piedmont
Candy Company, 209 Preston Avenue, now stands. This pond
was chiefly fed by Schenck's Branch. It was dammed, and the
outlet flowed unbridged across the Avenue and into its present
channel. The ice was cut and sold for storage purposes, though
not for table use. The more substantial homes all had ice-houses
on the premises, and stored ice in winter, cutting from many country
sources. Later, Mrs. Thompson's branch was sunk under Main
Street, and covered on its further route by a plank walk. A superb
sycamore tree long stood on the northeast corner of the Barracks
Road and Main Street. (Authorities: Mr. Walter E. Fowler;
the late Mr. W. W. Waddell.)
Error. See post, p. 110, n. 13. We are told that the older
dwellers on this street insisted that the proper name was "The
Hill," and considered the later name a nickname.
Now the home of Mrs. Virginia L. Shisler, 503 West Main
Street. Mr. Wood was a northerner, but married here. He was
for a while an officer in the Farmers' National Bank.
May 13, 1874
Random Row.—The present boundary of Charlottesville,
west, is on the lot of John C. Wood, where
we concluded our last number.
From the "Delavan" formerly "Mudwall" house to
the "Midway," at our first recollections, there were no
dwellings; a small brick blacksmith shop stood on the
corner of the old Lynchburg road, and a few years afterwards
farther west, there was put up another brick
blacksmith shop, now transformed into a dwelling
house. At the present day between these two points,
Delavan and Midway, there are eight wood dwellings
and eight brick ones. Mudwall took its name[151]
from the
adobe walls that surrounded the entire lot of an acre or
two, which were made of a mixture of clay, lime and
straw. One of the posts of this material was standing in
a good state of preservation till within a year or so past,
nearly fifty years. Dr. John H. Cocke, of Fluvanna
of the University of Virginia, and for many years one of
the Board of Visitors of this Institution, had this building
erected soon after the opening of the University,
and intended it to be used for a classical boarding school,
expecting to put at its head a distinguished teacher from
New Jersey, but being disappointed in obtaining him,
the house was vacant for a time. H. A. Garland, afterwards
a distinguished man, had a very successful school
here. William B. Napton, afterwards a distinguished
lawyer and judge of the courts in the State of Missouri,
also was principal of the classical school taught here.
Dr. Charles Minor, for many years afterwards, a successful
physician in this county and town, was also the
principal of a large boarding school in this house, Mrs.
Spencer being the matron. Dr. James L. Cabell, Professor
at the University, was also, we believe engaged in
this school. At the breaking out of the late war, this
building was used as barracks for troops, and then as a
hospital to the end of the conflict; on either side of it
were erected long wooden houses for the sick and
wounded. Since the war the colored Baptists, 800 of
whom had been members of the old Baptist church in
this town, were dismissed in 1864 to form a new church;
and the church now occupies the building as their house
of worship, and is known as the Delavan Baptist church.
Rev. M. Lewis is at this time pastor. On the lot on the
corner of the street of the old Lynchburg road, for the
past twenty years or more, is the iron foundry and agricultural
machine manufactory[152] of R. F. Harris. In
present depressed state of business in the country, he has
not more than half that number employed. Mr. Harris
is a native of Albemarle county, and has great mechanical
genius and skill, and has built up for himself and our
community quite a lucrative and extensive business.
His foundry turns out castings three times a week, and
what any other man is capable of making or moulding,
Mr. Harris can do or have done. His mowers, rakes,
drills, corn shellers, ploughs and plough castings, cutters,
mill machinery, cider and wine presses, harvesters,
threshing machines, grain fans and innumerable others
of his works are known all over the State and Southern
country. We consider Mr. Harris one of our best citizens
and greatest public benefactors as well as an invaluable
acquisition to any country, and he should receive
from our community, and especially the farming community,
a steady generous and hearty support and encouragement.
A few more similar establishments, and
such men as R. F. Harris, would add materially to the
business of the town, as well as enhance the value of the
property of its owners. Support your own mechanics
and they will support you.
Ridge street in 1828 to 1835, was without dwellings,
and scrub oaks and chincapin bushes grew, where now
private residences. This street is becoming quite a
prominent drive for belles and beaux, as well as for pedestrian
promenades. The Zion Baptist (colored) congregation
have quite a large and flourishing church on
the north side of the bridge that spans the railroad track.
Dr. Dice has a large and beautiful brick mansion[153] west
of the bridge; this house was erected by the late Elijah
Dunkum, and has been the residence of Th. J. Wertenbaker,
and the late Jacob R. Stevens. The brick Methodist
parsonage house[154] is south of the above house; next
is the residence[155] of G. Wallace Spooner, for several
and his family. The next fine house[156] and beautiful
garden is the property of E. M. Wolfe, and was, we believe,
built for and once occupied by John H. Bibb.
There are a few small wood dwellings south of this
house. Crossing over the street are three large brick
houses,[157] built for, and occupied previous to the war, by
the late Col. John B. Strange, who for many years was
principal of the large and flourishing "Albemarle Military
Institute." Artillery, as well as infantry, tactics
were taught in it, and several of the pupils became officers
in the Confederate army, some of whom lost limbs,
and others were killed in the battles. Col. Strange himself,
a brave and patriotic officer was killed in the battle
of Antietam in Maryland. His remains now repose in
the Charlottesville cemetery. It was in one[158] of the
occurred some three years since. Mr. William Darrow
has a pretty residence north of the institute, which he
bought of Wm. Morris, now of Mississippi. This property
was at one time owned by John H. Bibb, and was
built by Wm. Hodges. Mr. A. C. Brechin has, within
the past two years, erected adjoining Mr. Darrow's lot,
a tasteful and neat brick residence. Wm. Brown, colored,
has a residence here. East of this the Lutheran
church has been erected with a parsonage attached. Mr.
Balz, the confectioner, has also on Ridge street, a new,
fine brick residence, and the handsome cottage next,
with variegated slate roof, is the property of Wm. J.
Parrott. We cross over the bridge and come to the
"Midway," a large, substantial and elegant three-story
house, the residence of Dr. J. E. Chancellor. This
house was built by Albert Chewning for the late Alexander
Garrett, the former clerk of the courts in Albemarle
county, and whose residence,[159] now the property of
his grand-son-in-law, Rev. Mr. Ware, stands east of it
on South street. The house was built expressly for a
at the University would make their Summer residences
here. Fleming Boyd, Louis Xanpi, the dancing
master, and John Keller for years occupied this hotel,
but the travelling custom did not come up to the expectations
of its owner, and it was used for a classical boarding
school. Pike Powers and Alexander Duke, the sonin-law
of A. Garrett, first commenced a school for boys
and young men, which was quite successful, Mr.
Strother having the management of the boarding department.
Mr. Powers was for a session, after the
death of Professor Bonnycastle, Professor of Mathematics
in the University, at the end of which he settled in
Staunton and had a very large and flourishing male
classical academy there. Mr. Duke was afterwards associated
with Charles Slaughter in the continuance of
this school at Midway, Mrs. Mary Slaughter, now of
Lynchburg having charge of the boarding department.
Charles Slaughter shortly afterwards attended the law
classes of the University, and Dr. A. R. M'Kee assisted
Mr. Duke in the school until its discontinuance. Mr.
Williamson had in 1850 and 1851 a school in this house.
During the war the house and grounds were used for
hospitals for the sick and wounded of the Confederate
army.
East of Midway, on Main street, was a one-and-half
story brick dwelling,[160]
built by the late William Booth,
pump maker and occupied by his family; since his death
Thomas Farrar, a colored man, also a pump maker,
owns this property, and has raised and enlarged the
house, and has also built the adjoining house east of it.
and for years his widow kept a house of private
entertainment here. Mrs. S. was a lady of refined taste
and education, the daughter of a surgeon of the Revolutionary
Army, and she, at one time, was the owner of
many sections of public lands in Ohio, which her father
received for his services in the army; but, unfortunately
for her and children, her husband sold them for trifling
sums; the possessors of these lands realized fortunes
from the sale thereof. The next house was the property
of George Toole, for whom it was built; when we first
knew it, in 1828, the late John Keller kept a confectionery
establishment here; afterwards a Mr. Weidemyer
had a store in this house. Mr. Toole himself
kept store here, and died in the house. It is now a private
dwelling. The next building, lately occupied by
Mr. Mangum,[161] carriage-maker, was also used for the
same purpose by the late T. R. Sullivan. The late B.
Ficklin once had a tobacco factory in this building, in
connection with Geo. Slaughter and Mr. Goodloe, now
of the Goshen Hotel. The family of Mr. Ficklin lived
in the brick dwelling east of the factory. This latter
house William P. Farish, William L. Dunkum, James
T. Poindexter and William W. Tompkins occupied for
dry goods and grocery stores. The next house, now the
property of C. L. Fowler,[162] was built by Charles Spencer
foot of the hill, and the beginning of Random Row, or
"Vinegar Hill." The latter name we have since been
informed, was given to it by George Toole, and he
named it in honor of the Vinegar Hill in Ireland,[163]
where the O'Toole's lived, an account of which can be
seen in Lever's novel of Charles O'Malley, The Irish
Dragoon.
Woods, Albemarle County, p. 170, states that General John
H. Cocke of Fluvanna County, Virginia, a member of the first
Board of Visitors of the University, in an effort to guard students
against dissipation purchased nearly fifty acres on the south side
of University Street, extending from the corner near the Dry
Bridge to the Junction Depot, and built a large hotel where no
liquor was allowed. He named it The Delavan after the eminent
reformer of Albany, N. Y. "The hotel had a wall in front, flanked
with heavy pillars, and covered with stucco stained with the tawny
hue of the Albemarle clay; and from this peculiarity it acquired
the popular soubriquet of Mudwall." (Philip A. Bruce, History
of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919 (5 vols., New York,
[1920]-22), Vol. II, pp. 328-29, confirms this.) The hotel failed,
and later the building was used for a private classical school and
for a Confederate Hospital.
This property, long a landmark, consisted of a foundry and
residence, and covered the sites now occupied by the Whiting Oil
Co. and the MacGregor Motors, Inc., 416-420, West Main Street.
Mr. R. Frank Harris was succeeded by his son, the late Mr.
Charles P. Harris, their combined period of business covering
seventy-eight years. The residence was built by Nimrod Sowell,
about 1839, and purchased from John J. Pace by R. F. Harris and
H. Taylor, Oct. 4, 1858. When the house was razed, it was found
that the timbers were hand-hewn and the corners mortised, without
the use of nails.
301 Ridge Street, now the residence of Albert S. Yancey.
This was long the home of Dr. R. B. Dice, a well-known Methodist
minister and editor. At the turn of the century it became for
some years the home of the family of General Fitzhugh Lee. General
Lee was a nephew of Robert E. Lee and had been a MajorGeneral
in the Confederate army. As Consul-General at Havana
he was present at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, and
was given command of the Artillery forces in Cuba. He thus wore
the Union blue, and threw his considerable influence toward healing
the remaining scars of the War between the States. It was,
however, too early for complete acceptance, and one old Confederate
Colonel, standing on the curb to watch him drive by in full
uniform upon the occasion of Theodore Roosevelt's address to the
University Alumni in June, 1903, voiced the minority emotion by
saying "he had been taught in childhood to regard heaven as the
natural destination of a Virginian and had always hoped to go
there, but now he felt he had rather watch the devil burn the Yankee
pants off of Fitz Lee." General Lee removed to Norfolk shortly
before his death in 1905.
The chief of these, a four-story house no longer standing,
was later known as the Barksdale place, and gave its name to
Barksdale Street. The local organization of Confederate Veterans
was named the Col. John B. Strange Camp in honor of this
officer.
632 Ridge Street, long the home of E. F. Markwood. A
glimpse of this street during Sheridan's raid is given in A. B. Warwick's
Reminiscences of Charlottesville [Charlottesville, 1929?],
pp. 4-5. He tells us that his family at that time were living in the
house later the home of Mr. J. E. Gleason, Sr., now occupied by
H. Cooper Gleason, No. 510. He recalls that many of the plunderers
were foreigners, unable to speak English intelligibly. One
of them said frankly, "I care not, which side wins; for I am fighting
only for my bounty." When the troops departed the guard at
the Warwick home and another in the neighborhood remained a
day or two to protect the families from stragglers. Later, news
came back that while attempting to rejoin their command they were
captured and shot by the mountain population at some point between
Charlottesville and Lynchburg.
This dwelling has been converted into a warehouse. It is on
Garrett Street, facing the end of 2nd Street, E., and may be seen
by looking south from Main Street. At the time of Mr. Garrett's
death in 1860 it was named "Oak Hill" and was upon a farm of
117 acres, bounded by South Street, Ridge Street, and the old
Farish's Mill Road (Albemarle County Deed Book 67, p. 730). Mr.
Garrett came to the county from Louisa in 1794. He served as
county clerk and was an active man of affairs, a large dealer in real
estate, and financial adviser to Jefferson during the building of the
University. He was first bursar of that institution.
A part of this building still stands at No. 234 West Main
(now occupied by the Washington Times), and is believed to be
one of the oldest remaining buildings on Main Street. The larger
portion has been razed. (Authority: Mrs. E. H. McPherson.)
Still owned by the third generation of this family, it is now
Fowler's Valet Cleaners, 228 West Main Street.
Vinegar Hill was near Enniscorthy, in Wexford, Ireland.
It was here that the brief and desperate agrarian revolt of 1798 was
crushed. The Catholic "Defenders" or "United Irishmen" in this
campaign were led by Father John Murphy against the Protestant
"Peep-o'-day Boys" or "Orange-men." After severe cruelties
and torture on both sides the "Defender" insurgents encamped,
fourteen thousand strong, on Vinegar Hill. English troops under
General Lake attacked them there, June 21, and were completely
successful. Father Murphy was captured in Wexford, and hanged
June 26. This uprising was followed in 1800 by the Act of Union.
Vinegar Hill was thus for long a "fighting word" for both Irish
parties. See J. R. Green, A Short History of the English People
(4 vols., New York, 1895), Vol. IV, pp. 1784-85; Sir Sidney
J. M. Low and F. S. Pulling, Dictionary of English History (London,
New York [etc., 1928]), p. 1078.
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